Visitors kept coming to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Friday as the clock ticked toward a June 12 deadline to remove President Donald Trump’s name from the building. Tourists and locals came to see the landmark before the change, and some arrived hoping to catch the sign while it was still up.
Donna Merz, an Adams Morgan resident, said she had not stepped inside the Kennedy Center since Trump’s name was added to the building. She said she would return once the removal was official, bringing back her season tickets and, if the sign comes down as planned, making the center a regular stop again.
The scene drew people for opposite reasons. Barbara, visiting from Colorado, said she and her companion came to take pictures before Trump’s name came off the facade, and she said they support the president and like seeing his name on the building. Her companion, Scott, said they had seen “Les Misérables” there last year and praised Trump for what he called efforts to clean up the area and the country.
Not far away, Bill and Cheri Collins were making the trip from outside Atlanta for the same deadline, though with a very different mood. Bill said they came to watch Donald J. Trump get taken off the Kennedy Center and joked that they had considered bringing Champagne to mark the moment. The couple had lived in the Washington area before moving to Georgia in the early 2000s, and they planned to return every day until they head back home next Wednesday.
The Kennedy Center has become a public stop for people who want to see the name before it disappears and for others who want the removal to happen. What remains unclear is the exact moment the change will be made, but by June 12 Trump’s name was scheduled to come off one of the capital’s best-known cultural institutions.
