A new court filing says President Donald Trump may have damaged the marble at the Kennedy Center when his name was placed on the building.

A court has ordered Trump to remove his name, along with the large tarp and scaffolding covering the area where the sign was installed.

Lawyer and Trump critic Norm Eisen wrote on social media that the Justice Department told the court on Tuesday evening that the scaffolding must remain in place while workers carry out “water testing and structural repairs to the roof.”

“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,” the DOJ wrote in a court filing.

It is the first time the public has heard of “reported panel damage” to the exterior marble structure of the Kennedy Center. In its report on the filing, The Independent said the damage appears to have resulted from construction crews removing Trump’s name from the building.

The filing adds a construction-related layer to an already contentious dispute over the Kennedy Center’s signage and governance, with the physical condition of the facade now part of the court-supervised removal process.

In February 2025, Trump dismissed much of the Kennedy Center’s board, installed allies, and became its chair. In December, the new board voted unanimously to rename the institution the “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” Within hours of the vote, workers added Trump’s name to the building’s façade and official website. The White House said the change reflected Trump’s work “saving” the institution.

The move drew immediate objections, and the administration was sued. Democrats in the House and Senate argued that the board did not have the authority to change the name without approval from Congress.

The lawsuit challenged both the renaming of the building and Trump’s efforts to close the center for an extended “renovation.” In May 2026, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled against the administration, saying the rebranding violated the Kennedy Center’s governing statute.

“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” Cooper wrote.

The court held that the law requires the institution to honor “President Kennedy and President Kennedy alone.”

Eisen wrote on X: “The government now says it may have damaged the Kennedy Center's historic marble and still the board wants Trump's name back up, in defiance of a federal court order.”