Judge Orders Trump Administration to Explain Tarp Over Kennedy Center
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to clarify the reasons behind installing a tarp over the Kennedy Center’s facade after the former president’s name was removed from the building pursuant to a court order.
US District Judge Christopher Cooper mandated the administration to provide a report by 31 July detailing “the purpose and status of the tarp and scaffolding” currently covering the building. The tarp was put in place during a predawn operation earlier this month when workers removed Trump’s name, following Cooper’s ruling that the Trump administration had unlawfully affixed the name to the facade in December.
Neither the White House nor the Kennedy Center immediately responded to requests for comment.
Lawsuit and Court Orders
The removal of Trump’s name was ordered in a lawsuit filed by Joyce Beatty, a Democratic representative and Kennedy Center board member. Last month, Judge Cooper directed the removal of Trump’s name from the Washington theater complex’s signage and blocked plans by the Trump administration to close the center for renovations starting on 4 July. The administration has since appealed to a federal court to suspend that order.
In filings submitted this week to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Beatty’s legal team described the “semi-permanent tarp” obscuring the name of the late President John F. Kennedy at the center as an apparent effort by the Trump administration to “frustrate the restoration of the status quo as it existed prior to the renaming.”
Beatty characterized the tarp’s obstruction of the facade as an “act of petty defiance.”
Maryland Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin previously referred to the tarp as “a literal coverup.”
“A literal coverup, to add to all the others. Nobody’s fooled,” Raskin said. “Trump and his team got caught vandalizing federal property by posting graffiti with his name on the Kennedy Center and a judge shut them down. It will be a beautiful day when the name of the Kennedy Center is restored to visibility. And the vandal should pay for all the repair work – not the taxpayers.”
Administrative Actions and Compliance
Last month, the Kennedy Center’s general counsel issued a memo instructing the removal of all references to the former president by 12 June.
“To comply with this order, you must immediately change email signatures, letterheads, and other documents to reflect the name such as ‘The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,’ or ‘Kennedy Center,’” the memo stated. “Other changes, such as to templates and forms, signage, brochures and website pages, must be completed no later than Friday, June 12, 2026.”
Judge Cooper’s ruling emphasized that the venue cannot be renamed without congressional approval.
“The Kennedy Center’s organic statute 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.
Renovation Plans and Legal Challenges
As part of his ruling, Cooper also temporarily blocked the center from closing this summer for renovations, describing the decision as “ill-informed” and “seemingly preordained.”
Previously, Trump had announced plans, approved by his handpicked board at the center, to begin a $257 million “revitalization project” that would have closed the center for two years.
