UPDATE 8:40 p.m. ET: Crews have resumed work following a break prompted by severe weather.
UPDATE 7:37 p.m. ET: Workers have begun climbing the scaffolding toward the letters.
Washington, DC – The scaffolding is up, the crowd is gathering, and people are literally standing outside the Kennedy Center waiting to see whether President Donald Trump’s name disappears from the building.
Yes, really.
A live video feed Friday showed workers in hard hats and neon safety vests assembling scaffolding outside the Kennedy Center as a court-ordered deadline to remove Trump’s name from the iconic performing arts venue arrived.
The Main Event Is… A Sign
Workers spent Friday constructing scaffolding outside the Kennedy Center as temperatures climbed and thunderstorms rolled through Washington, D.C.
The livestream became something of an unexpected spectator sport. At times, cheers erupted from the crowd as the scaffolding rose higher.
Some onlookers chanted “Take them down!” while others snapped photos and watched from nearby sidewalks.
One woman posed with a bottle of sparkling wine in anticipation of the possible removal.
Among those gathered were former federal employees affected by DOGE-related layoffs, relatives of former Kennedy Center employees, longtime patrons, and Tara Hoot, who became the first drag queen to hold a residency at the Kennedy Center.
As the afternoon wore on, the scaffolding climbed higher and the suspense grew. The actual letters, however, remained firmly attached.
Why Trump’s Name Is On The Building
For decades, the building’s exterior identified the venue as “The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
That changed in December when an additional line of lettering was installed that read “The Donald J. Trump and.”
The addition followed Trump’s takeover of the institution after he replaced Kennedy Center leadership and appointed allies to its board.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled the board acted illegally when it added Trump’s name to the building.
“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,” Cooper wrote in his ruling.
Friday marked the deadline for the name’s removal.
Last-Minute Fight Fails
The Kennedy Center sought to delay Cooper’s ruling while pursuing further legal action.
That effort failed Friday when a judge denied the center’s request to pause the order requiring Trump’s name be removed from the building.
The legal effort suffered another setback just hours later when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit declined to immediately halt Cooper’s ruling while the appeal proceeds.
The decisions leave the original order in effect as the Kennedy Center faces a court-imposed deadline to remove Trump’s name by midnight tonight.
A Surprisingly Large Audience
What might otherwise be a routine maintenance project has become a political spectacle.
Some viewers treated the live stream like a major national event, checking in throughout the day to see whether workers would begin removing the letters.
Others simply enjoyed the unusual sight of a crowd gathering around scaffolding and cheering for construction progress.
At least for one afternoon, a wall in Washington managed to compete with everything else happening in the news cycle.
WATCH the livestream below:
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