Kennedy Center orders staff to remove Trump’s name
By Betsy Klein, Sunlen Serfaty, CNN
(CNN) — The Kennedy Center’s general counsel ordered staff on Thursday to remove 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 center 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.
When asked for comment on the memo, the White House referred CNN to Trump’s Truth Social posts responding to last week’s court ruling. 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.
US District Judge Casey Cooper concluded that the law establishing the center “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 center, 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 center’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.
In an Oval Office appearance Thursday, Trump revealed his latest proposed project for Washington, DC — what he called a “promenade” to connect the Lincoln Memorial with the Potomac River.
“They want to call it the Trump promenade,” he told reporters. “But I don’t know if I want to do that, but it’s going to be beautiful.”
CNN has asked the White House for additional details on the proposal.
This story has been updated with additional and will be updated.
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CNN’s Devan Cole contributed to this story.
