President Donald Trump got a lesson in the law of unintended consequences when pranksters used the tarp that’s hiding the removal of his name from the Kennedy Center to frame vintage video clips of him gallivanting with Jeffrey Epstein.
“Yesterday night a protester projected what we all wanted on the tarp of the Kennedy Center,” X user @sarrah_bellus wrote Sunday morning on X, along with a recording of the video as it was projected onto the center’s doors.
The stunt appeared to be the work of a group of anti-Trump street artists known as VJayBombs, which posted a montage of video clips on Instagram that show the Kennedy Center was among several targets during a spree of similar projections onto Washington, D.C., landmarks and locations.
They include the Lincoln Memorial, where Trump’s deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller appeared as a bat-like creature hanging from the ceiling; the Reflecting Pool, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio surfaced as a fish; and the Department of Justice, where the diaper-clad bottom of a man appeared under a banner showing Trump’s head and torso.
In addition to the clips of Trump and Epstein, the roughly two-minute video projected onto the Kennedy Center featured a mug shot of the notorious late sex offender and the words “No one bends the knee like the GOP.”
That message was followed by images of Trump allies including embattled FBI Director Kash Patel, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and former Attorney General Pam Bondi, who were labeled “Guardians of Pedophiles.”
The projections included an illustration of someone climbing a ladder towards the letters on the Kennedy Center’s facade, followed by a cascade of letters spelling out “Donald” and letters from his full name rearranged to look like the word “pedo.”
Neither the White House nor the Kennedy Center immediately returned inquiries from The Independent.
Trump’s name appears thousands of times in documents released by the Justice Department in response to legislation the president signed into law last year.
Trump hasn’t been accused of any criminal wrongdoing and has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, with whom he’s insisted he cut all ties before Epstein was investigated and convicted on sex charges in Florida.
VJayBombs pulled off a similar prank in Los Angeles following Trump’s seemingly interminable, record-setting State of the Union address earlier this year.
The group used laser projectors, lenses, a laptop and battery packs to project a looping, 45-second video satirizing the speech onto the L.A. Downtown Medical Center, The Hollywood Reporter later revealed.
A recording of Saturday night’s scene outside the Kennedy Center showed security workers in yellow vests as well as a closing credit for the video that referenced the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, which didn’t immediately return an inquiry from The Independent.
Last year, Trump named himself to the Kennedy Center’s board and was elected its chair by the trustees he handpicked after purging the board’s membership.
The board later voted unanimously to add Trump’s name to the center, prompting a lawsuit by Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex officio board member.
Last month, a judge sided with Beatty and ruled the alteration illegal because “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”
Workers pried off the letters spelling out Trump’s name on the facade earlier this month after both U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied last-minute, emergency appeals to stay Cooper’s order.
But the workers left scaffolding for the job in place and hung huge, blue-striped white tarps that cover where Trump’s name formerly appeared.
More than a week after a court-ordered deadline to remove the letters, the tarp remains in place.
Saturday night’s incident came a day after the Kennedy Center said it would delay a planned two-year closure for $250 million in renovations demanded by Trump.
In a court filing, the center also said it’s not booking any new shows after July 5, the date initially set for the closing.
“Given present uncertainty as to future programming, management has deferred affirmative long-term programming or staffing adjustments,” executive director Matt Floca wrote.
