Workers remove Trump's name from Kennedy Center in dramatic overnight operation

US President Donald Trump's name was officially removed from the facade of the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts early Saturday morning, June 13, 2026, following a high-stakes legal battle. It came less than six months after Trump’s name was added to the Washington institution. The signage was taken down after the first deadline was missed, as hundreds of onlookers cheered and sang God Bless America. The construction crews initiated the predawn operation around 1:20 am and dismantled the exterior signage letter-by-letter by approximately 3:40 am.

Workers arrived at the site on June 12 and waited for the approval from the centre's Trump-appointed leadership as an 11th-hour effort by the Department of Justice and the centre's leadership to block or pause the court order. The workers waited there with scaffolding mounted and gear set up without any action. Soon, they lost the last effort, and a tarp was placed on parts of the scaffolding to block the view of Trump's name being taken off the building.

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The court-ordered deadline to revert the name was Friday at 11:59 pm in local time. The DOJ filed a notice stating the government would miss the midnight mark, attributing the physical work delays to a cluster of severe local thunderstorms. While the physical letter on the marble was the last to go, the broader scrub from of Trump's name from website, email signatures, letterheads, and promotional materials were taken down to comply with the directions of the court.

The White House announced in December that the Kennedy Centre's board voted "unanimously" to rename the cultural centre of the Trump-Kennedy Centre, something Trump had long desired for his legacy. After the judgment, Trump was frustrated with the outcome and posted on social media that he would abandon his pursuit of a Kennedy Centre redesign and transfer the oversight of the centre back to Congress if he did not maintain control over decision-making.