ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
President Trump has recast parts of the nation's capital in his own image and name. Today, that changed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts here in Washington after a federal judge forced the center's leadership to strip Trump's name from the building's facade. NPR's Frank Langfitt was at the Kennedy Center to cover the story. Hi, Frank.
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Hey, how you doing, Adrian?
FLORIDO: Frank, there was a deadline late last night to take down the president's name. You were out there in the early hours of this morning. What did you see?
LANGFITT: So there were, like, several hundred people in front of the white facade of the building. You know, it's along the Potomac, and they'd been there since Friday afternoon. Now, this was not a protest. They actually came to watch and witness. And this judge - there was this judge who had said, you know, putting Trump's name on the building was illegal, and they needed congressional approval. And people were out to sort of see if the rule of law would be enforced. Would there be accountability for the president? I met this woman, Krystal Brewer. She works for a social justice organization. She's 40. She lives in D.C. And she said taking down Trump's name had a lot of symbolic weight.
KRYSTAL BREWER: It's about not being able to do something just because you think you're the most powerful person and you can defy the courts.
LANGFITT: She also said removing Trump's name was a way of reclaiming a piece of Washington from a president that, she feels very strongly, has tried to put his stamp on the nation's capital.
BREWER: I wanted to see us get a part of our city back. They've been ruining our structures everywhere.
FLORIDO: Ruining our structures - Frank, you know, what immediately comes to mind is the demolition of the East wing of the White House. Is that what she's referring to?
LANGFITT: Yeah, not just that. She's also talking about those giant banners that I know people have seen of Trump's face, and they hang from several federal buildings. The UFC octagon - it's been built on the south lawn of the White House. It's to celebrate Trump's birthday Sunday. And then, of course, the plans for the giant triumphal arch, which is across on the Lincoln Memorial.
FLORIDO: So people came out to the Kennedy Center to witness the removal of Trump's name from the building. Did that actually happen while you were out there?
LANGFITT: No. And this is a part of the story I think was really interesting. Workers had been building the scaffolding up maybe six, seven stories high to take down the president's name. Then, I guess before 2 o'clock this morning, they began covering the whole operation in a tarp. That meant no one who had come there could actually see them do this.
Now, the crowd got furious. People were screaming cover-up. They called the workers cowards. And I was talking to a woman named Mary Foltz. She's a nurse from Northern Virginia. And she said, hiding the act of taking down the president's name, from her perspective, was like a metaphor for the Trump administration.
MARY FOLTZ: Like, there's lack of transparency, and that's just the epitome of it. This is a meme.
LANGFITT: And just to be clear, Adrian, the Kennedy Center confirmed today that, indeed, Trump's name is gone from the building, as well as the website.
FLORIDO: What did the Trump administration have to say about all this, Frank?
LANGFITT: They'd appealed the judge's takedown order, and they'd argued that Trump's name on the building had actually been a big attraction for donors. And they said it was crucial for raising funds for the Kennedy Center's renovation. And they said that taking Trump's name off the building - if they did that, all the fundraising would come to a halt, but a higher court rejected that appeal.
FLORIDO: NPR's Frank Langfitt. Frank, thanks so much.
LANGFITT: Happy to do it, Adrian. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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