WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge cleared the way for President Donald Trump's name to be removed from the Kennedy Center's exterior on Friday, denying a last-minute request from the institution's board that would have kept the name in place.
With storms gathering near Washington before a court-ordered deadline to remove references to Trump, workers were seen building scaffolding around a section of the building that includes the president's name. A crowd gathered nearby and cheered their work as Trump's name moved closer to being taken down.
Click to Gallery
Workers erect scaffolding in front of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts sign in Washington, Friday, June 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
Workers construct scaffolding below the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts sign Friday, June 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
Workers erect scaffolding in front of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts sign in Washington, Friday, June 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
A worker sits on scaffolding at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Friday, June 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
Yet the Kennedy Center's leadership didn't abandon its legal efforts to keep Trump's name in place. The institution appealed the ruling denying it request for a stay and requested action by the court by 7 pm ET.
“This appeal raises serious questions about Article III standing and about the powers of the Center’s Board," the filing read. "Major physical changes to the Center should await this Court’s resolution of those issues; as an equitable matter, it does not make sense to alter the Center’s name and signage now, only to potentially revert the name again after what should be a successful appeal.”
Last month, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled Trump’s name was illegally added to the iconic Washington performing arts facility and ordered it removed by Friday. Late Thursday, Trump’s handpicked board at the center mounted a last-minute effort to keep his name on the facade of the iconic performing arts facility, a request that Cooper denied.
A June 4 memo to staff from the Kennedy Center’s Office of General Counsel said email signatures, letterhead and other documents must reflect the name as “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” or “Kennedy Center.”
The Kennedy Center’s website has dropped Trump's name. And an earlier email sent to members offering ticket packages for the June 28 Mark Twain Award for American Humor ceremony came from the Kennedy Center without including Trump’s name.
After ignoring the Kennedy Center for much of his first term, Trump has wielded tremendous influence over the venue during his return to office. Just a month into his second term, he ousted the center’s previous leadership and replaced it with a board of trustees that named him chairman.
In his earlier ruling, Cooper also blocked the administration from closing the cultural and arts venue for major renovations that had been planned to start in July and last for two years.
Associated Press journalists Mark Sherman and Emily Wang in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.
Workers erect scaffolding in front of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts sign in Washington, Friday, June 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
Workers construct scaffolding below the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts sign Friday, June 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
Workers erect scaffolding in front of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts sign in Washington, Friday, June 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
A worker sits on scaffolding at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Friday, June 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose after oil prices fell again, and SpaceX soared in its highly anticipated debut on Wall Street. The S&P 500 rose 0.5% Friday. The Dow added 0.7%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.3%. Stocks got a lift from a 3.4% drop for Brent crude oil’s price, as hopes remain for a potential U.S.-Iran deal to get oil flowing globally again. SpaceX soared 19.3% in its first day of trading, suggesting investors still have plenty of demand for AI-related stocks. Other AI stocks were mixed following their sharp swings over the last week.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising Friday after oil prices fell again, and SpaceX soared in its highly anticipated debut on Wall Street.
The S&P 500 added 0.4% and was heading toward the finish of its third winning week in the last four. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 382 points, or 0.8%, as of 2:30 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher.
Stocks got a lift from a 3.4% drop for the price of Brent crude oil to $87.29 per barrel, deepening its loss for the week. Oil prices have come down since President Donald Trump on Thursday called off his threat to launch strikes on Iran and said a potential deal with Iran may be imminent.
A deal to end the war could reopen the Strait of Hormuz and allow oil tankers to once again deliver crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide. Its near closure since the war began has sent the price of Brent up from roughly $70 per barrel and caused a wave of painful inflation for the world.
Of course, financial markets have rallied in the past on hopes that an end to the war with Iran was near, only to get disappointed each time.
The bigger factor for Wall Street over the last week has actually been artificial-intelligence stocks, and how they have gone from roaring to records to suddenly turning lower. The concern is whether such stocks shot too high, too fast because of AI mania, and their careening moves have sometimes reversed direction by the hour.
SpaceX suggested plenty of demand still exists among investors for AI after its stock soared 24.3% in its first day of trading. That gave Elon Musk's rocket company a total value of $1.9 trillion, making it bigger than such behemoths as Broadcom, Tesla or Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook.
AI-related stocks otherwise were mixed following their roller-coaster moves over the last week. Broadcom's drop of 1.3% was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500, but CoreWeave jumped 8.1% after learning it will join the Nasdaq 100 index later this month.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, Adobe dropped 7.5% despite reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
Its stock has lost 42% so far this year, and it announced its chief financial officer is leaving the company on Monday. Adobe is already looking for a CEO to replace Shantanu Narayen, who announced in March that he is stepping aside after 18 years as Adobe’s leader.
In the bond market, Treasury yields rose to regain some of their sharp slide from the day before, when oil prices dropped following Trump’s announcement. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.47% from 4.45% late Thursday.
High yields can slow entire economies and undercut prices for all kinds of investments, including stocks and cryptocurrencies. They hit investments seen as the most expensive in particular, and some critics are calling the AI industry a bubble where investment inflated too far.
Yields got a boost after a report suggested sentiment among U.S. consumers is not as bad as economists feared. The preliminary survey from the University of Michigan said sentiment improved by more than expected. U.S. consumers said they were feeling some relief after gasoline prices eased a bit early in the month.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rallied as they caught up to Thursday’s big gains on Wall Street.
South Korea’s Kospi jumped 4.6% and trimmed its losses from earlier this month taken because of sell-offs for AI-related stocks. The Kospi has nearly doubled since the start of the year.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 2.8%, and France’s CAC 40 climbed 1.8% for two of the world’s bigger moves.
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
Gwynne Shotwell, President and COO of SpaceX, right, poses with colleagues during a bell ringing ceremony for the IPO of SpaceX at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, Friday, June 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Traders Edward Curran, left, and Fred Demarco work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Trader Richard Cohen works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, May 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A currency trader passes by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, June 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader passes by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, June 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, June 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
