Trump’s name removed from Kennedy Center in predawn operation

Workers stripped US President Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center early this morning, less than six months after it went up, complying with a judge’s ruling that the performing arts landmark cannot be renamed without an act of Congress.

The work began around 1:20 a.m. (0520 GMT), hours after the Department of Justice said the government would miss the court-ordered deadline of 11:59 p.m. on Friday to take Trump’s name off the Washington venue, created a half-century ago to honor an assassinated president.

The center’s board, which Trump chairs, voted in December to rename it The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. Workers began affixing his name to the building the next day.

After erecting scaffolding late on Friday, workers draped tarps over the temporary structure in the predawn hours and were seen removing letters around 3:10 a.m. in an operation that took about 30 minutes.

Late on Friday, the DOJ had said in a court filing it would miss the deadline because of thunderstorms that could pose safety risks for the workers, seeking a 12-hour extension.

Democratic US Representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio, who brought the lawsuit that forced Trump’s name to be removed, called the request to extend the two-week-old deadline “inexcusable” and part of “a pattern of non-compliance,” according to the DOJ filing.

The center opened in 1971 as a memorial to President John F. Kennedy, a Democrat assassinated in 1963. Trump, a Republican, has packed its board of trustees with allies since resuming office last year.