Tarp Covered Kennedy Center Hosts Mark Twain Prize Event As Comedians Poke Fun At Trump

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The Kennedy Center, whose facade remains draped in tarps since the removal of President Donald Trump’s name following a court order, hosted the annual Mark Twain Prize ceremony, where the award’s recipient, Bill Maher, and other comics took several jibes at the president.

Maher—who has both praised and attacked the president several times in the past year—was asked about the tarp on the red carpet and said, “I think it’s hysterical,” and only Trump could think of something like this, Deadline reported.

When asked about his mixed relationship with the president, Maher told CNN the last few times Trump has talked about him in public, it’s “all back to yelling and screaming…we’re back to that.”

Maher, however, insisted that he prefers the “fighting and yelling” if that keeps channels of communication between him and Trump open, rather than thinking the president was “too deplorable to even acknowledge.”

According to Deadline, former Late Night talk show host Jay Leno also chimed in on the tarp, calling it “hilarious” and saying it was a “silly thing covering a name…it’s high school with money.”

The tarp has remained in place for more than two weeks now, and it was first put in place while workers removed Trump’s name from the building’s facade after a federal court ruled that the effort to rename the center was unlawful.