Trump’s name added to Kennedy Center to reflect name change
Construction workers added President Donald Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center to reflect the center’s name change.
WASHINGTON – The Trump administration wasted no time in putting up signs for the newly branded Trump Kennedy Center.
Less than 24 hours after the Kennedy Center Board of Directors voted to rename the iconic arts institution after President Donald Trump, officials showed up at the building on Friday, Dec. 19, to add Trump’s name to the facade.
The sign above the Washington Performing Arts Center’s main entrance now reads “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Performing Arts Center.” The center’s website and social media sites have also been completely revamped to reflect Trump’s name.
The center’s board, chaired by Trump, is made up mostly of members hand-picked by the president. White House press secretary Caroline Levitt said the board renamed the facility in honor of President Trump “because of the incredible efforts President Trump has made over the last year to save the building.”
But a formal name change appears to require Congressional action. A federal law passed in 1964, a few months after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, mandated the construction of “a building designated as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.” The law does not authorize the board to change its name.
Democrats slammed the move. Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), one of the board’s ex-officio members not appointed by President Trump, disputed the White House’s claim of a “unanimous” vote. Beatty said he was not allowed to speak at the board meeting, which was held by phone, as the board voted on the name change.
“I tried to press the button to ask a question and express my concern to never vote yes on this, but I was silenced,” Beatty said. “Every time I tried to speak, I was silenced.”
“Clearly Congress has a say in this,” Beatty said, referring to a 1964 federal law and saying the vote to change the center’s name “is just an attempt to circumvent the law and deny the people a voice.”
Opened in 1971 in honor of the late 35th President of the United States, the Kennedy Center serves as the nation’s center of arts and culture, offering paying customers a wide variety of concerts, plays, and other live acts. This facility is owned by the federal government.
In February, one month into his second term, President Trump dismissed the Kennedy Center’s board of directors, installed himself as its new director, and appointed several political allies to the board. President Trump has chosen his special envoy, Rick Grenell, to head the center.
The president promised to transform the center with new renovations, improve its financial situation, eliminate what he called “woke” programming and bring “Broadway hits” back to the center. President Trump claimed the center had languished under “mismanagement” and characterized a $250 million expansion project planned before his second term in the White House as wasteful.
President Trump secured $257 million to renovate the Kennedy Center in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” bill approved by Congress last summer.
X Contact Joey Garrison at @joeygarrison.
