Judge orders Kennedy Center to explain covering over building signage where Trump name was removed

Administration Judge orders Kennedy Center to explain covering over building signage where Trump name was removed Comments: by Ashleigh Fields - 06/24/26 6:29 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Ashleigh Fields - 06/24/26 6:29 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to explain the tarp covering the Kennedy Center by next month as lawmakers question the plans for the world renowned performing arts venue amid a pending lawsuit.

District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered the Trump administration to file a joint status report within 7 days of a mid-July Kennedy Center Board of Trustees meeting or by July 31, “whichever is earlier.”

“The joint status report shall apprise the Court of any pertinent factual developments as to plans for future construction and operations at the Kennedy Center,” Cooper wrote.

‘The report shall also indicate the purpose for and status of the tarp and scaffolding that Defendants have erected on the front portico of the Center, to the extent they remain at that time,” he added.

Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), who filed a lawsuit after Trump’s overhaul, said officials are continuing to obscure the Kennedy Center’s “façade in an act of petty defiance.”

“Today, President Kennedy’s name remains on the building,” her lawyers wrote in a Monday filing.

“But the iconic letters are now obscured by the semi-permanent tarp, which appears to be Appellants’ effort to frustrate the restoration of the status quo as it existed prior to the renaming,” they added.

The tarp in question went up on June 13, the deadline Cooper had put in place for Trump’s name to be removed from the building.

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