President Donald Trump's name has been removed from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., after a judge ordered its addition was illegal. The Kennedy Center's board, which was handpicked by Trump, voted to add Trump's name to the center late last year. The battle over the Kennedy Center's name comes during a broader push by Trump to overhaul the institution, which is closed for "renovations" amid mass cancellations by artists.
"We, the American people, have rarely been afforded the decency of a public conversation or process," says Marc Bamuthi Joseph, who was fired from his role as vice president and artistic director of the Kennedy Center's Social Impact initiative in March 2025. "There were no procedural protocols in the affixing of this person's name on a national memorial, and so … this does feel like a small victory for the rule of law."
The removal of Trump's name "really does mean something. We have been fighting for it since it went up in December," says Mallory Miller, who was fired from her job as assistant manager of dance programming at the Kennedy Center in August 2025. Miller is the co-founder of Hands Off the Arts, which has been rallying outside the Kennedy Center every week. "This is just the first step in rebuilding the trust that has been lost," says Miller, pointing out that Trump "is still the boss" at the Kennedy Center and that workers at the center are still being fired.
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