Kennedy Center Opera House could be renamed after Melania Trump
The House Appropriations Subcommittee has voted to rename the Kennedy Center Opera House after First Lady Melania Trump.
The U.S. State Department announced on social media Wednesday that the U.S. Institute of Peace, a 41-year-old agency that works with national executive branches to resolve violent conflicts abroad, has been renamed in honor of President Donald Trump.
“Welcome to the Donald J. Trump Peace Institute. The best is yet to come,” the department said in a statement.
The post described the president as “the greatest dealmaker in the history of our country.”
The institute sued the president and the Department of Government Efficiency earlier this year, challenging the administration’s efforts to seize its headquarters and install new agency leadership. The independent agency was created and funded by Congress and was targeted as part of DOGE’s efforts to reduce federal bureaucracy.
A federal judge ultimately approved the purchase.
Over the past two years, Republican lawmakers have proposed a number of bills and resolutions that tout Trump or take away his image. That includes a bill introduced in June 2024 by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) that would require the U.S. Treasury to resume producing $500 bills that feature Trump’s portrait instead of President William McKinley’s.
Others have advocated awarding Trump the Congressional Gold Medal for foreign policy accomplishments, renaming Dulles International Airport and state highways after him, or applying his name to the nation’s 4.4 million square miles of exclusive economic zone.
Since taking over the presidency, Trump has sold or endorsed Bibles and coins, and previously peddled Trump-branded sneakers and NFT trading cards. As a real estate and reality TV billionaire, Trump’s name has graced high-rise hotels, casinos, airlines, vodka, and a shuttered university that was forced to pay $25 million in damages on fraud charges.
Reporter Dan Morrison contributed to this article.
