A federal court order forcing President Donald Trump’s name off the Kennedy Center sent one former CNN anchor reaching for one of the 20th century’s defining moments.

Jim Acosta, who streamed the overnight removal online, told viewers the scene resembled the collapse of the Iron Curtain. “This is very much like watching the Berlin Wall coming down,” he said. “It is a sign that mankind, that humankind can stand up against tyranny,” he said in the video on Grabien.

The actual work proved far less dramatic. Crews spent the early hours of Saturday prying the lettering off the building’s face by hand, then concealed the job behind a tarp draped over scaffolding, according to Mediaite. Acosta was among several people who carried live coverage of the operation. Workers hauled away the debris and left once the final letter dropped. (RELATED: Trump Announces He’s Closing Kennedy Center For 2 Years)

The removal traces back to a ruling by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper. He found in May that renaming the institution required congressional approval, and he set June 12 as the date for the administration to fall in line, according to CBS News. The center had already scrubbed the president’s name from its website before the deadline arrived.

Trump’s team BS’d a judge last night in asking for time to remove Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center. It was a delay tactic so the scaffolding and tarp could be ready in the wee hours to block the public’s view of the removal. Once the tarp was up the name came down in minutes. pic.twitter.com/8CUSQkuuzE

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) June 13, 2026

Trump’s team fought the order to the end. A three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit turned away the administration’s request to pause Cooper’s decision, and the court will not weigh the underlying appeal until late June at the earliest, according to The Hill. Democratic Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty, the one who brought the suit, branded the appeal “frivolous.”

Beatty welcomed the outcome in a statement Saturday morning. “Today’s victory is the beginning of returning the Kennedy Center to the American people. The rule of law prevailed, and that is worth celebrating. Let this send a message across the country: when we stand up, fight back, and defend our democracy, we can win. This is just the beginning,” Beatty said, according to NBC Washington.