A federal judge in Washington has ordered the Trump administration to account for a tarp that is now covering the front of the Kennedy Center, the famous performing arts complex where the president’s name was recently removed under court mandate.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper issued the directive Wednesday, requiring the administration to explain by July 31 “the purpose and status of the tarp and scaffolding” currently surrounding the landmark building.
The covering appeared after workers removed Trump’s name from the building’s exterior in an early-morning operation earlier this month. Judge Cooper had previously ruled that the Trump administration unlawfully added the president’s name to the facade back in December.
Neither the White House nor the Kennedy Center offered a response when asked for comment.
The legal dispute stems from a lawsuit filed by Democratic Representative Joyce Beatty, who serves as a Kennedy Center board member. Last month, Judge Cooper ordered Trump’s name taken down from the Washington theater complex and also blocked the administration’s plans to shut the venue for a two-year renovation period beginning July 4. The Trump administration has since appealed that ruling, asking a federal appeals court to pause the order.
Attorneys for Beatty filed documents this week with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, arguing that the “semi-permanent tarp” blocking the late President John F. Kennedy’s name from public view appears to be the Trump administration’s “effort to frustrate the restoration of the status quo as it existed prior to the renaming.”
Beatty herself had sharp words for the move, calling the obstruction of the building’s facade an “act of petty defiance.”
