Trump Cronies Vote to Rename Kennedy Center After Trump

Months after Donald Trump gutted the board at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a.k.a. the Kennedy Center, its board, which was handpicked by the president, has “voted unanimously” to rename the institution the Trump-Kennedy Center, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

In a social media post, Leavitt said the reason for the board’s decision was “the unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building.” She went on to write that Trump had worked on the building’s reconstruction, gave it financial help, and helped “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!” Leavitt wrote. “The building will no doubt attain new levels of success and grandeur.”

CNBC reports that this optimistic portrait of Trump’s contributions are distorted as ticket sales and staffing have both fallen in 2025.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) called the name change illegal. “The Kennedy Center Board has no authority to actually rename the Kennedy Center in the absence of legislative action,” he said, per Bloomberg. So did former Massachusetts representative Joe Kennedy III. “The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law,” he wrote. “It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says.”

The announcement arrived a week after the Center held its annual Kennedy Center Honors, which this year recognized Kiss, Sylvester Stallone, Gloria Gaynor, and George Strait. The recipients recently posed for a photo with Trump in the Oval Office. The ceremony, which Trump hosted himself, is set to air on CBS and stream on Paramount+ on Tuesday.

In February, less than a month after his second inauguration as president, Trump declared himself chairman of the Kennedy Center’s board. “I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” he wrote on his own social media platform in February. “We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!” He subsequently fired its president, Deborah F. Rutter, and instated Richard Grenell, a Trump loyalist, as interim president. Several board members either stepped down or found themselves terminated. Renee Fleming and Ben Folds were among the board members to leave their positions.
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Carri Twigg, a former Kennedy Center board member whom President Joe Biden appointed, wrote an op-ed for Rolling Stone explaining why Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center was disturbing. “If President Trump succeeds in capturing and reshaping the American imagination alongside our institutions, we’ll find ourselves without the tools needed to protect or, in a likely reality, restore democratic norms,” she wrote. “The path forward requires meeting people where they are, not just with policy papers, but with compelling cultural narratives that champion pluralistic values. … The battle for America’s future will be won or lost not just at the ballot box, but on TV and phone screens, stages, concert venues, and cultural institutions across the nation.”
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The institution, which was originally to be known as the National Cultural Center, was renamed after Kennedy in 1964, a year after that president’s assassination. It opened in 1971 and became home to the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera. The first Kennedy Center Honors, which recognizes achievement in the arts, took place in 1978.

In July, NBC News reported that renaming the Kennedy Center after Trump would be against the law. A U.S. Code says, “After December 2, 1983, no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.” Any renaming would take approval from congress.