General Discussion

Late last week, the administration made several last-ditch efforts to halt implementation of the ruling before the court-imposed deadline, but to no avail. MS NOW reported:

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has been restored to its original name.

President Donald Trump’s name was officially cleared from the marble façade of the storied cultural institution on Saturday, the Kennedy Center said, after last-minute attempts by the Trump administration to delay a federal judge’s ruling that the name cannot be changed.

There’s still some legal wrangling on the horizon, but at this point, it’s worth pausing to note how exactly the Kennedy Center was restored to its legal name.

On Friday, a crowd assembled to watch crews remove Trump’s name from the wall, and while I wasn’t personally there, by all accounts, the audience was prepared to celebrate a good show. The Washington Post reported, “The atmosphere was festival-like: People brought their dogs, their partners and their children.”....

But as of late Sunday, the public still wasn’t allowed to see the work that had been done.

Workers are adding a curtain obstructing the view of the removal of Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2026-06-13T05:41:32.232Z

The removal of Trump’s name was poised to be a symbolically significant event. The authoritarian-minded leader, fixated on self-glorification, tried to force his name onto a memorial for a celebrated assassinated president, a court instead upheld the law, and a crowd assembled to watch the crew precisely because of the indelible images that would soon emerge.

But Trump’s team, no doubt mindful of the circumstances, preferred a literal cover-up.

It’s something to keep in mind the next time White House officials boast about the president and his administration enthusiastically embracing “transparency.”

As for the future of the Kennedy Center, the president’s appointees at the venue announced over the weekend that they had established the Trump Kennedy Center Fund, which will purportedly help raise money for the center. Trump, the appointees added, will be the chairman.