The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will be renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.
The board of trustees for the prestigious D.C. cultural arts center, who were appointed by President Trump in February, voted unanimously on the name change, Ms. Leavitt wrote on X.
Ms. Leavitt said the vote was “because of the unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building. 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,” she wrote.
Mr. Trump had recently begun referring to the Kennedy Center, which is named for the former president, as the “Trump-Kennedy Center.” He promoted the FIFA World Cup soccer draw for 2026 by declaring it would be held at the “Trump-Kennedy Center” before saying, “excuse me at the Kennedy Center,” drawing laughter from the crowd.
As he walked the red carpet earlier this month at the Kennedy Center Honors program, Mr. Trump was asked if he would rename the venue after himself. He responded that it would be the board’s decision.
The name change will likely be met with criticism from the Kennedy family. Maria Shriver, a niece of the late president, blasted Republicans for introducing legislation to rename the venue for Mr. Trump, calling the proposal “insane.”
“It makes my blood boil. It’s so ridiculous, so petty, so small-minded,” she wrote on social media. “Truly what is this about?”
It’s also unclear if the board has the legal authority to rebrand the performance venue. A 1983 federal law passed by Congress bans additional memorials at the center.
“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,” the statute says.
However, it’s unclear if the name change could go through if passed by the GOP-controlled House and Senate.
There appears to be some support in Congress for renaming the performing venue after Mr. Trump. Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee offered a bill that would rename the Kennedy Center’s opera house after first lady Melania Trump.
Rep. Bob Onder, Missouri Republican, in July introduced a bill that would strip Mr. Kennedy’s name from the building and rebrand it as the “Donald J. Trump Center for the Performing Arts. He dubbed his bill the Make Entertainment Great Again Act, or the MEGA Act.
Neither bill has gained much traction, but Republicans may pick them up again if the board’s action encounters legal challenges.
Mr. Trump took over the Kennedy Center in February.
As part of Mr. Trump’s overhaul of the center, he named himself chairman and pledged to rid it of programming he said was woke and too focused on leftist ideology and political correctness. He has also named members to the board of trustees and will attend the taping of its annual honors program in the fall.
Mr. Trump ousted longtime Kennedy Center Board Chairman David Rubenstein, who is also the center’s biggest donor. Mr. Trump also fired Deborah F. Rutter, who served as the Kennedy Center’s president for more than a decade.
Mr. Trump installed longtime ally Richard Grenell as president and filled the board with new and conservative faces, including Fox News host Laura Ingraham, second lady Usha Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
Mr. Trump said the changes were necessary to usher in a “golden age in arts and culture.” He pledged that there would be no more drag shows or “anti-American propaganda” at the Kennedy Center.
Mr. Trump’s changes stunned the arts community, especially after firing the center’s longtime director and promising to change its programming as part of an effort to put his stamp on the national arts scene.
In protest, some notable acts canceled shows at the Kennedy Center, among them the musical “Hamilton,” Issa Rae and Rhiannon Giddens.
