--- title: Judge Rejects Bid to Keep Trump's Name on Kennedy Center description: While the Kennedy Center board was fighting the sign change in court, workers were seen putting up scaffolding under the sign. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/06/12/trump-s-name-may-stay-on-kennedy-center-past-friday-deadline/ author: Philip Wang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-06-12T15:56:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-06-12T17:36:27.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Judge Denies Last-Minute Bid to Keep Trump's Name on Kennedy Center og:description: While the Kennedy Center board was fighting the sign change in court, workers were seen putting up scaffolding under the sign. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/06/12/trump-s-name-may-stay-on-kennedy-center-past-friday-deadline/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb7184aa2644c911/6a2c4444ddea62091f11c898/GettyImages-2281263972.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: GettyImages-2281263972.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Judge Denies Last-Minute Bid to Keep Trump's Name on Kennedy Center twitter:description: While the Kennedy Center board was fighting the sign change in court, workers were seen putting up scaffolding under the sign. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb7184aa2644c911/6a2c4444ddea62091f11c898/GettyImages-2281263972.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Judge Rejects Late Bid to Keep Trump's Name on Kennedy Center as Deadline Looms > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. Senior correspondent Philip Elliott brings sharp context to the issues driving the capital, connecting the decisions made in Washington to the institutions, industries and people they affect. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Philip Wang](https://time.com/author/philip-wang/)  ## Philip Wang Updated: Jun 12, 2026 5:36 PM UTCPublished: Jun 12, 2026 3:56 PM UTC  On Friday, June 12, the day judge had ordered the Kennedy Center to restore its original signage, construction workers were building scaffolding near the sign. The building's facade still read The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. On Friday, June 12, the day judge had ordered the Kennedy Center to restore its original signage, construction workers were building scaffolding near the sign. The building's facade still read The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.Anna Moneymaker—Getty Images  by [Philip Wang](https://time.com/author/philip-wang/)  ## Philip Wang Updated: Jun 12, 2026 5:36 PM UTCPublished: Jun 12, 2026 3:56 PM UTC President Donald Trump’s name remained affixed to the [Kennedy Center](https://time.com/article/2026/05/31/burgum-says-trump-s-name-won-t-be-taken-off-kennedy-center-after-judges-ruling/) on Friday, the deadline a federal judge had set for the letters to be taken down. But a federal judge denied a last-minute effort by the Center's Board of Trustees to keep the signage in place for now, as workers were putting up scaffolding under the sign, suggesting removal could be imminent. On Thursday evening, the Board of Trustees of the Kennedy Center appealed a ruling that ordered the removal of Trump’s name from the center’s building and the center’s online materials and accounts by Friday. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper previously ruled that only Congress, not the Board, has the authority to change the center’s name. In recent days, Trump’s name had been removed from the center’s [official website](https://www.kennedy-center.org/), voicemail and [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/user/TheKennedyCenter). Nonetheless, a person with knowledge of the legal fight expressed skepticism that Trump's sign would come down Friday. In the filing, the Kennedy Center said the court should grant a stay of the judge’s order, because it has “strong arguments to raise on appeal,” and that removing Trump’s name would be “both wasteful for the Center and confusing for the public.” “The far more sensible course is to allow the D.C. Circuit to adjudicate this appeal before requiring these sorts of compliance measures,” the center argued. The latest legal back and forth stood to lengthen a drama that began six months ago, when the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees, which is packed with Trump’s allies, voted “unanimously” to rename the cultural center to the Trump Kennedy Center. Instead of replacing the building’s signage, workers added the words “The Donald J. Trump and” above the existing lettering, changing the building’s name to “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” The move drew immediate [backlash](https://time.com/7364727/donald-trump-kennedy-center-closing-shuttered-takeaways/) and a lawsuit from Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, one of the board’s ex-officio members who had been stripped of voting power on the board. Norman Eisen, one of the attorneys representing Rep. Beatty, said the center’s last-minute appeal “evinces desperation.” “That is what they should be feeling because they don’t have a legal leg to stand on. We are vigorously contesting this latest ploy, as we have throughout the case, on behalf of Congresswoman Beatty and the American people,” Eisen added. Washingtonians have been keeping a close eye on the Kennedy Center as the court-ordered deadline nears. A [live camera](https://www.youtube.com/live/BslwLBRuvgE) mounted outside of the Watergate hotel balcony has been monitoring the exterior wall of the Kennedy Center for days. The livestream is set up by [Hands Off the Art](https://www.instagram.com/handsoffthearts/), an activist group that has been leading weekly protests outside the center this spring. Andrew Martin, a DC resident also known as “[Drybrarian](https://www.threads.com/@drybrarian)” on Threads, has been taking a daily picture outside of the Kennedy Center since the beginning of June. The account quickly garnered thousands of likes each day and more than 30,000 followers. “We are so hungry for even the tiniest smidge of hope,” Martin [told The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/06/11/when-trumps-name-comes-off-kennedy-center-bike-guy-will-prove-it/), “of something that indicates that the bad days might be over.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/06/12/trump-s-name-may-stay-on-kennedy-center-past-friday-deadline/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/06/12/trump-s-name-may-stay-on-kennedy-center-past-friday-deadline/"},"headline":"Judge Rejects Late Bid to Keep Trump's Name on Kennedy Center as Deadline Looms","datePublished":"2026-06-12T15:56:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-06-12T17:36:27.000Z","description":"Amid the setback for Trump allies, workers were seen putting up scaffolding under the building's signage.","url":"https://time.com/article/2026/06/12/trump-s-name-may-stay-on-kennedy-center-past-friday-deadline/","keywords":["Donald Trump","washington DC"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb7184aa2644c911/6a2c4444ddea62091f11c898/GettyImages-2281263972.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Philip Wang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/philip-wang/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb7184aa2644c911/6a2c4444ddea62091f11c898/GettyImages-2281263972.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GettyImages-2281263972.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"Anna Moneymaker—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/06/12/trump-s-name-may-stay-on-kennedy-center-past-friday-deadline/","name":"Judge Rejects Late Bid to Keep Trump's Name on Kennedy Center as Deadline Looms"}}]}] ```