'A Literal Coverup': What Is the Kennedy Center Hiding Behind Those Tarps? [View all]

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‘A Literal Coverup’: What Is the Kennedy Center Hiding Behind Those Tarps?

The arts center says it pulled President Trump’s name from the building front. But the result remains hidden by tarps, prompting questions and speculation.


Massive tarps hanging over the front of the Kennedy Center on Thursday. Alex Kent/The New York Times

By Elizabeth Williamson
Elizabeth Williamson reported from the Kennedy Center during the battle over removing President Trump’s name from the building last week.
June 19, 2026

In the early hours of June 13, in an action that turned out to be news around the world, workers hung massive tarps from scaffolding across the front of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and under court order removed President Trump’s name from the marble facade. ... Or did they?

True, the center’s operations chief, Matt Floca, filed a sworn declaration with a federal court later that day saying that Mr. Trump’s name had been removed. And true, a New York Times photographer captured evidence through an opening in the tarp that the letter “A” came off. Another photographer recorded evidence of the demise of a “D.”

But in a downer denouement for Mr. Trump’s critics, a week later the tarps are still there, prompting some to wonder whether at least some of the letters are, too. As of Friday evening, there was no visual evidence that the letters splashed across the building had been restored to “The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

Peering behind the tarps is impossible because they now lie tight against the building’s front. ... “I don’t know if they took down the sign, because I can’t see it,” said Luna Woo, a violinist visiting from Portland, Ore., as part of the National Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Music Institute. She and other young musicians in the program have been trying to see behind the tarps from a practice room overlooking them. No luck.

So when will the tarps come down? ... A Kennedy Center spokeswoman, Roma Daravi, emailed a terse response: ... “The scaffolding and tarp will remain up as crews address maintenance needs of the marble and soffit panels. Best, Public Relations.”

{snip}

Julia Jacobs contributed reporting from New York.

Elizabeth Williamson is a feature writer for The Times, based in Washington. She has been a journalist for three decades, on three continents.