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A former CNN anchor turned YouTube content creator live-streamed for nearly 11 hours from Friday afternoon into early Saturday morning awaiting the removal of President Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., only to make an absurd comparison that ended in widespread mockery.
Jim Acosta, a known anti-Trump media figurehead, was CNN’s chief domestic correspondent and anchored “CNN Newsroom” from 2021 until early 2025. He worked for the network for 18 years in total, but left unceremoniously when executives proposed moving his morning show into the midnight to 2 a.m. slot.
Acosta hosted the marathon coverage, which he dubbed a live watch party, on “The Jim Acosta Show” on YouTube. The coverage mostly featured a live shot of scaffolding, obscured by a tarp, behind which workers toiled to remove Trump’s name from the building.
“This is very much like watching the Berlin Wall coming down,” Acosta said in a strange comparison made around 3:30 a.m.
CNN’s Jim Acosta announces he is leaving the network during his show on Tuesday. (CNN)
“It is a sign that mankind, that human kind can stand up against tyranny,” he continued. “As long as it took, we pledged to continue to have this coverage going, and by golly, we did, because we knew how much this meant to a lot of people out there, and we know how important this was.”
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In December 2025, the board of the Kennedy Center voted to rename the performing arts complex to the “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” which drew backlash from the political left.
A Democratic congresswoman sued to have the change nullified, and a federal judge last week ruled that the center’s original name, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, must be restored.
Before the climax of Acosta’s evening, he had given up on the stream and retired to bed, leaving his producer behind to keep watch. He missed the removal of the letters, but was alerted to the goings on by his producer.
President Donald Trump watches before Game Three of the 2026 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden in New York City on June 8, 2026. (Al Bello/Getty Images)
“It looks like they are potentially touching the letters,” the producer said at 10 hours and 18 minutes into the stream. “I can’t say whether or not they’re removing them. But it looks like there might be progress.”
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“So yes, it appears they are moving the letters,” he said. “I don’t know if you guys can see it but they are loosening the letters. The letters are coming down officially. So this means I’m probably gonna have to give Jim Acosta a call and he’s not gonna be very happy because he will be woken up.”
Acosta rushed to the scene to deliver his report.
“I had just gotten home, and we thought this might take place later in the morning, and of course they did this in the dead of the night,” Acosta said upon his return to the scene. “They did this at three in the morning, and to make it — the icing on the cake, the chef’s kiss in all of this for Donald Trump — is that they had to put up a giant white tarp to shield Trump and his feelings from the humiliation of seeing this all come down in front of the cameras.”
Construction workers build scaffolding near the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts sign in Washington, D.C., on June 12, 2026. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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He went on a tirade against the president for several minutes upon his return to the scene in Northwest Washington, D.C., and continued moaning about the injustice of the tarp that blocked the project from public view.
Acosta said Trump “slapped his name illegally and obnoxiously on the exterior of the Kennedy Center,” later adding that the president “operates like a small child [who] doesn’t wanna give his toy away, doesn’t want to hand over his toy after his mommy and daddy have told him it’s time to go to bed.”
The newly minted social media influencer was relentlessly mocked for the performance, which was posted on X and quickly went viral.
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“Ah yes. The Berlin Wall famously came down to a crowd of one guy talking to himself and not throngs of elated prisoners. Jim Acosta is wild,” said one popular X user.
Jim Acosta speaks at The Common Good American Spirit Awards at The Plaza in New York City on Nov. 21, 2024. (Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan)
“This is wild. I can’t imagine having so little going on in my life that I would sit outside a building all day waiting for a name to get removed from it,” said Matt Whitlock, a conservative commentator. “Jim Acosta is making an aggressive play to take over as angry blueanon wine mom final boss. Watch out Jennifer Welch.”
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“Decades of Communist oppression V. a sign on a building,” one user said after watching the clip. “The similarities are striking.”
“Give that man a Pulitzer. What a dipsht [sic],” another person sarcastically said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Acosta.
