Donald J. Trump has spent his career slapping his name on everything that holds still long enough — buildings, golf courses, steaks, the occasional government program — but a federal judge has apparently decided the Kennedy Center has suffered enough. And this is happening before his birthday on the 14th.

Following a May 29 ruling, staff at the venue received a memo this week directing them to scrub Trump's name from, well, every fucking thing: email signatures, letterhead, signage, brochures, the website — the works. The deadline for full de-Trumpification is June 12. The center will revert to its original name, honoring an actual president who was, notably, a champion of the arts rather than a litigant against them.

Via Town&Country:

In February of this year, Trump announced plans to shut down the Kennedy Center for two years; Judge Cooper’s ruling also reversed that decision. In a post on Truth Social after the ruling, Trump criticized the judge, and said “we are going to be working with Congress to transfer this failing Institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it… Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey.”

The Kennedy Center's Trump-aligned board tried in December to append the president's name to an institution that Congress named after an assassinated president back in 1964 — a move that was either audaciously tone-deaf or completely on-brand, depending on your perspective. The gambit promptly triggered both public backlash and a lawsuit from Rep. Joyce Beatty (D, Ohio), one of the board's ex officio members, who apparently felt that congressional prerogative was worth defending. Imagine that.

On May 29, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper — an Obama appointee, as outlets have been careful to note — agreed, ruling that the rebranding was flatly illegal and reminding everyone that only Congress has the authority to rename the center. He then gave the Kennedy Center two weeks to remove all physical "Trump Kennedy Center" signage and scrub similar branding from official materials. A court-ordered name tag removal. Dignified!

There is something genuinely satisfying about a judge ordering the unbranding of a man who treats his name like a public utility.