Appeals court denies President Trump's request to halt removing his name from the Kennedy Center

Culture Appeals court denies President Trump's request to halt removing his name from the Kennedy Center July 8, 20261:21 PM ET Anastasia Tsioulcas The Kennedy Center on June 28, with its facade signage still covered by a tarp and scaffolding. Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images On Wednesday, a federal appeals court denied President Trump's request to stop the removal of his name from Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center. The signage on the building has been covered with tarp and scaffolding since June 13, but in a court filing last month, the center's current executive director said that Trump's name has been removed. In their decision, three judges from the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said that the president had failed to prove that the arts center would be "irreparably injured" without Trump's name attached to it. Sponsor Message NPR requested comment from the Kennedy Center, but did not receive an immediate reply. In previous court filings, Trump's legal team had asserted that removing the president's name from the arts complex, both on the physical building and in its digital materials, would inflict irreparable harm in both time and money already spent. In the denial, the three judges – Patricia Millett, Robert Wilkins and Gregory Katsas – wrote that since Trump's name has already been removed, "a stay would not avert those harms." Furthermore, Trump had claimed that without his name attached, future fundraising would be threatened "and [will] contribute to the financial decline of the Center." In response, the appeals judges wrote: "Appellants, however, have failed to support this assertion with any specific facts or evidence. They offer only the conclusory assertions of the Kennedy Center's Executive Director that were made in a factually unsupported declaration." The center's current executive director, Matt Floca, specializes in physical plant management....