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.

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.

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.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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