Background: Workers stand on scaffolding near the signage for the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on June 12, 2026 (Photo by Olivier Douliery/Abaca/Sipa USA – Sipa via AP Images). Inset: President Donald Trump leaves a St. Patrick’s Day event in the East Room of the White House on March 17, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images).
A tarp is all the rage in the standoff between President Donald Trump and the member of the Kennedy Center board who sued to keep the 45th and 47th president’s name off the national high culture hub.
U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat, filed the lawsuit “to stop the unlawful renaming” of the center. So far, that holding pattern has preserved a tentative victory for Beatty.
In late May, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, a Barack Obama appointee, ruled the center’s board “overstepped its statutory bounds by unilaterally renaming the Kennedy Center after President Trump.”
In early July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied a Trump request to return his name to the facade as appeals played out.
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Since then, the parties have been engaged in limited motion practice largely cabined by minute orders and joint status reports.
In the court’s latest minute order, issued in late July, the judge directed the parties to hold off on a planned status report and instead file within five days of an early August meeting in which the board will “decide on future construction and operational plans for the Center.”
That meeting has come and gone — and Beatty has concerns.
Currently, there is a tarp and scaffolding on the front portico of the building. The plaintiff is none too pleased about this development. Meanwhile, the defendant says the tarp is both necessary — and a nonissue.
“Water testing and structural repairs to the roof overhang of the Center’s front portico require the use of a scaffolding system, including a protective covering—a tarp—around that scaffolding,” the status report from Trump’s perspective reads. “Center management has erected one portion of this necessary scaffolding, which it used to remove President Trump’s name from the building’s facade.”
The defendant elaborates on the tarp’s purpose:
The protective barrier around the scaffolding was and is a necessary element of the ongoing construction activities at the Center—during the removal of the name, it served as a safety barrier for ongoing construction activities and helped safeguard the marble facade of the building in light of reported panel damage. And the Center will utilize the existing scaffolding to access, investigate, and engineer structural repairs to the overhead soffit, which will enable further repairs[.]
“Final removal of the scaffolding and its barrier is contingent upon the scope of any repairs required at present to the marble facade, as well as any other necessary repairs,” Trump’s portion of the report goes on.
But Beatty is not buying the president’s justifications.
“Defendants advance a pretextual justification for the tarp currently covering the facade,” the representative’s section of the report reads. “The structure is an obvious effort to obstruct a return to the pre-litigation status quo.”
Beatty says the center was established “as a tribute” to John F. Kennedy and his name “should once again be visible on the facade.”
“Defendants’ childish refusal to accept this Court’s ruling to that effect should end now,” the plaintiff’s section of the report goes on.
Beatty believes the continued presence of the tarp is little more than an effort to keep Kennedy’s name and memory obstructed.
“It has become clear that Defendants are maintaining scaffolding and a tarp to cover the Kennedy Center’s facade to frustrate the intent of the Court’s order that the Center be returned to a memorial exclusively honoring President Kennedy,” the plaintiff’s section of the report continues.
To hear the plaintiff tell it, the president’s justifications for the continued presence of the tarp should not be taken seriously.
“Defendants’ statement regarding the tarp falls apart under scrutiny,” Beatty’s section of the status report says.
The plaintiff elaborates here [emphasis in original]:
Defendants state they intend to use the scaffolding to examine the roof overhang. But the soffits are some twenty feet or more above the scaffolding. Defendants imply that they will erect more scaffolding around the rest of the Center, presumably to examine other portions of the roof. But Defendants tellingly have not done so for months, leaving only the Center’s iconic name obscured—a strong indication that this structure has nothing to do with the roof … Defendants claim they need to use the tarp “for ongoing constructive activities” and to “help[] safeguard the marble facade.” But Defendants provide no details on what construction remains necessary; when it will occur; and why it requires a tarp.
To that end, Beatty is asking the court for an order “showing cause why the tarp should not be removed within 30 days” of Aug. 18.
Trump, for his part, bemoans Beatty’s request.
“Plaintiff again improperly asks this Court for relief in a status report,” the defendant’s section of the status report complains.
The post Trump’s justifications for keeping a tarp over JFK’s name on the front of the Kennedy Center are ‘pretextual’ and an ‘obvious effort to obstruct,’ court filing says first appeared on Law & Crime.
