Kennedy Center orders staff to remove Trump’s name

Workers update signage outside the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts after the center was renamed in honour of U.S. President Donald Trump on December 19, in Washington D.C. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

The Kennedy Center’s general counsel ordered staff on Thursday to remove U.S. President Donald Trump’s name from the building by June 12, according to a memo obtained by CNN, in order to comply with a recent court order.

Staff were also instructed to immediately update some Kennedy Center documentation — including their email signatures and marketing materials — to remove Trump’s name, according to the memo.

“To comply with this order, you must immediately change email signatures, letterhead, and other documents to reflect the name as ‘The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,’ or ‘Kennedy Center.’ Other changes, such as to templates and forms, signage, brochures, and website pages, must be completed no later than Friday, June 12, 2026,” the general counsel wrote in the memo, which was first reported by The Washington Post.

The directive is a blow to the president’s bid to control the performing arts centre and his broader effort to put his stamp on the nation’s capital. His takeover of the institution began in the early days of his second term, when he gutted the existing board and installed loyalists.

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment on the order to staff to remove Trump’s name.

Last week, a federal judge blocked the Kennedy Center from temporarily closing its doors for a yearslong renovation and said its board violated the law when it added Trump’s name to the historic performing arts venue.

U.S. District Judge Casey Cooper concluded that the law establishing the centre “makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so.”

“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” Cooper wrote in his 94-page opinion.

He gave officials two weeks to remove any signage that includes Trump’s name and update its website to remove all references to the name “Trump Kennedy Center” or the “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

Shortly after the ruling, Trump signaled he was moving away from his focus on the arts centre, suggesting he would be transferring control to Congress. (Since its founding, the executive branch has had oversight over the board of trustees while Congress has been responsible for annual appropriations for its operations and maintenance.)

“I have instructed the Department of Commerce to make all necessary arrangements with Congress to allow a full and complete transfer of this Institution, giving them the responsibility for its Operation, Maintenance, and Management,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post last week.

He added that while he was being treated “unfairly,” he had “no interest in continuing” unless he was “free” to do what he wanted to do.

The centre’s gift shop had recently put all “Kennedy Center”-branded merchandise on sale — 30% off ahead of the expected closure. A map in the parking garage was affixed with a “Trump Kennedy Center” label. Programs for productions were emblazoned with “Trump.”

But some of the fixtures had yet to include Trump’s name, with concession cups, banners in the grand foyer and digital tickets still bearing the original name.