The board of the Kennedy Center in Washington DC is moving ahead with a proposal to rename the arts and culture-focused institution, named after President John F Kennedy, in honor of Donald Trump, according to an announcement from the White House on Thursday.
It will now be called the Trump-Kennedy Center.
“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,” the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, wrote in a post on X.
“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 name change is the culmination of an aggressive effort by the Trump administration to remake the US capital’s arts and culture institutions more to its liking.
Earlier this year, House Republicans proposed changing the name of the Kennedy Center’s Opera House to the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House”. It has also ordered a review of the Smithsonian Institution and is seeking to build a huge ballroom adjacent to the White House. That ballroom takes the place of the East Wing, which was demolished over the summer.
Critics of the Kennedy Center name changes have pointed to a federal statute establishing the center that says “the Board shall assure that 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.”
Trump installed himself as chair of the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees in February, calling it a “take-over” after purging the board.
“Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP. The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation,” Trump said, adding in capitals, “the best is yet to come.”
Earlier this month, the center honored a hand-selected list of contributors to the nation’s cultural output. Trump served as the evening’s compere. They included the country singer George Strait; Broadway actor Michael Crawford, best known for The Phantom of the Opera; actor Sylvester Stallone; and disco singer Gloria Gaynor.
When he announced the honorees in August, Trump said he was “very involved” in selecting the group. Past recipients of the center’s lifetime achievement awards include Stephen Sondheim, Yo-Yo Ma, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Johnny Cash, Meryl Streep, Aretha Franklin, LL Cool J, Francis Ford Coppola and the Grateful Dead.
The US congresswoman Joyce Beatty posted on X that the decision to rename the institution as the Trump-Kennedy Center was not unanimous. Beatty serves as an ex-officio member of the center.
“For the record. This was not unanimous,” she said. “I was muted on the call and not allowed to speak or voice my opposition to this move.” Beatty called the center’s renaming a “just another attempt to evade the law and not have the people have a say”.
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