Kennedy Center Will Be Renamed After Donald Trump, White House Says

The Kennedy Center is being renamed the “Trump-Kennedy Center,” after President Donald Trump ousted the previous Democratic board members and management team and installed himself as chairman.

The unanimous vote on the naming decision by the Kennedy Center’s board members, whom Trump selected, came after the president announced in February that he was “unanimously” elected to lead the board of the Washington, D.C., cultural center. The full new name will be “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” according to the center’s VP of public relations, Roma Daravi.

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News that the facility is to be renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center was announced Thursday by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on X.

“I have just been informed that the highly respected Board of the Kennedy Center, some of the most successful people from all parts of the world, have just voted unanimously to rename the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center, because of the unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building,” Leavitt wrote. “Not only from the standpoint of its reconstruction, but also financially, and its reputation. Congratulations to President Donald J. Trump, and likewise, congratulations to President Kennedy, because this will be a truly great team long into the future! The building will no doubt attain new levels of success and grandeur.”

The legality of the move was quickly disputed. “The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law,” Joe Kennedy III, one of JFK’s grandnephews and a former U.S. representative from Massachusetts, wrote in a post on X. “It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says.”

Journalist Maria Shriver, a niece of JFK, also strongly objected to the name change. “It is beyond comprehension that this sitting president has sought to rename this great memorial dedicated to President Kennedy,” she wrote on X. “It is beyond wild that he would think adding his name in front of President Kennedy’s name is acceptable. It is not.” Shriver added: “Can we not see what is happening here? C’mon, my fellow Americans! Wake up! This is not dignified. This is not funny. This is way beneath the stature of the job. It’s downright weird. It’s obsessive in a weird way.”

After Trump took office for a second term in February, Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter was fired. Trump then appointed as her replacement Richard Grenell, who was ambassador to Germany during the first Trump administration and was serving as Trump’s envoy for special missions.

Trump had criticized the Kennedy Center for programming that is overly woke. “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA — ONLY THE BEST,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in announcing Grenell’s appointment.

Following Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center, Shonda Rhimes, the organization’s treasurer who had been appointed by President Barack Obama, immediately announced she had resigned from the board. In addition, singer Renée Fleming stepped down as artistic adviser to the center, and singer-songwriter Ben Folds exited down as artistic adviser to the National Symphony Orchestra because of the president’s actions.

On Dec. 7, Trump broke with decades of tradition and hosted the 48th Kennedy Center Honors ceremony. This year’s honorees were Sylvester Stallone; KISS members Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley and Peter Criss; singer-actor Michael Crawford; country superstar George Strait; and disco diva Gloria Gaynor.

Trump told the crowd that he didn’t know why he decided to host. “I’m acting like Johnny Carson,” Trump said as he spoke from behind a podium with the Presidential seal, which was also a first for the ceremony. Highlights of the Kennedy Center Honors will be telecast Dec. 23 as a primetime special on CBS.

At the event, Trump also jokingly referred to the place as “the Trump-Kennedy Center,” then, waiting a beat for laughter, said, “I mean, the ‘Kennedy Center.’ I’m sorry. This is terribly embarrassing.”

The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts made its public debut on Sept. 8, 1971, with a “gala opening performance featuring the world premiere of a Requiem mass honoring President Kennedy, a work commissioned from the legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein,” the organization says on its website. President Kennedy had taken the lead to raise funds for what was originally called the National Cultural Center before it was renamed in his honor after he was assassinated.