WASHINGTON –  Workers stripped President Donald Trump's name from the Kennedy Center on June 13, less than six months after it went up, complying with a judge's ruling that the performing arts landmark cannot be renamed without an act of Congress, according to Reuters.

The work began around 1:20 a.m., hours after the Department of Justice said the government would miss the court-ordered deadline of 11:59 p.m. on June 12 to take Trump's name off the Washington venue, created a half-century ago to honor an assassinated president.

A construction crew first showed up at the iconic arts institution on the afternoon of June 12, mounted scaffolding and, hours later, geared up to take down the president's name ‒ letter by letter ‒ from the sign on the building's facade.

Workers begin adjusting the name of the "John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts" on December 19, 2025 in Washington, DC. The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees voted in what they say was a unanimous decision to rename the facility "The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts."

Workers begin adjusting the name of the "John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts" on December 19, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Workers begin adjusting the name of the "John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts" on December 19, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Workers begin adjusting the name of the "John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts" on December 19, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Workers begin adjusting the name of the "John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts" on December 19, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Workers begin adjusting the name of the "John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts" on December 19, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Workers begin adjusting the name of the "John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts" on December 19, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Workers begin adjusting the name of the "John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts" on December 19, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Workers begin adjusting the name of the "John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts" on December 19, 2025 in Washington, DC. The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees voted in what they say was a unanimous decision to rename the facility "The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts."

Hundreds of onlookers cheered and sang God Bless America as workers in hard hats with bungee lanyards clipped to their fluorescent yellow vests prepared to remove Trump's name. Many in the crowd were dressed as if for a performance at the stately Washington, DC, venue. Onlookers were festive and chatty amid thunderstorms that threatened to delay the work. Passersby honked their car horns in approval.

Carolina Clarence, an area resident, came to watch with her dog, Ruffino. The retired kindergarten teacher called it "ridiculous" that Trump’s name was put up at all.

"We’re going to see this coming down," said Clarence, adding that Trump's name on the building hurt the storied institution as artists cancelled shows and donations fell. "They’re going to destroy the Kennedy Center."

Workers arrived on site shortly after a trio of appellate court judges on Friday evening denied the Trump administration's request for a stay as it appeals the judge's decision ordering Trump's name be removed from the Kennedy Center's title.

Crews waited after midnight to begin taking the letters down. The hundreds on hand during the balmy DC evening watched, chanting "take it down." The work began taking the letter down around 3 a.m., the Washington Post reported.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, in a May 29 ruling, said adding Trump's name to the center was illegal and ordered it be stripped from official materials and eliminated from signage within 14 days, by June 12.

In his denial of the Justice Department's request for a pause, Cooper said defendants failed to prove their appeal would be successful and failed to show that the Kennedy Center would be "irreparably harmed" by following through with his order.

With the clock ticking toward an end-of-day deadline, the Trump administration later filed an emergency petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals requesting that it intervene to pause the order before 7 p.m. ET, but the panel denied the request. But that request was immediately denied by judges, paving the way for the president's name to be removed from the building as a crowd of onlookers stood by to watch workers do the job. After midnight on June 13, workers were still erecting a scaffold needed to remove the lettering.

Intermittent thunder and lightning didn't stop the crowd from gathering around the building to watch the spectacle, some in fancy clothes amid a festive attitude.

Earlier this week, the Kennedy Center's attorneys advised staff to adhere to the judge's order. Trump's name was quickly removed from the center's website and scrubbed from employees' email signatures. The center, however, waited until the judge took up a last-minute request to suspend the order before taking down the most visible display of Trump's attempted takeover of the center ‒ a large all-caps sign on the exterior of the building's marble facade that said, "The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts."

Now it's back to the title that's been displayed on the building since the center opened in 1971: "The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts."

The removal of the president's name from the center is a visibly striking blow to Trump's efforts to remake the center to his liking.

The Kennedy Center voted in December 2025 to rename the venue in honor of Trump, arguing he helped secure federal funding critical for the center's transformation. His name was added to the building's exterior sign less than 24 hours later.

Cooper, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, ruled that the Kennedy Center's board of trustees, made up of primarily Trump loyalists, violated the 1964 federal law that created the center to honor the late President John F. Kennedy when it voted to rename the center after Trump. The judge said the statute makes clear "the Kennedy Center must be named for, and is meant to honor, President Kennedy alone."

The judge's order came in a case brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, an ex officio board member at the Kennedy Center, who sued to stop Trump's rebranding and attempted two-year closure for renovations.

In his ruling, Cooper also overturned Trump's plans to close the Kennedy Center for two years beginning in July to accommodate massive renovations to the building.

The closure was approved in a March vote by the Kennedy Center's board of trustees. In his 94-page opinion, Cooper questioned the credibility of the conclusion from Matt Floca, the center's executive director, that renovations couldn't be carried out without shutting down the center for the pubic.

The judge also said the center's board "lacked any meaningful say" in the matter when it voted for the closure on March 16. Trump already announced the closure plans on Truth Social on Feb. 1.

Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump's name removed from Kennedy Center after judge's order