Coup Staged to Add Trump to Kennedy Center Name
By Reuters | 18 Dec, 2025

The Kennedy Center's board wasn't given notice of the proposed name change and opponents had their audio muted during the meeting, resulting in a coup by Trump in the push to rename the Washington DC cultural institution.

The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which President Donald Trump filled with allies during a broad takeover earlier this year, has decided to rename the institution the Trump-Kennedy Center, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday.

Trump, a Republican who is serving his second term as president, has been eager to put his stamp on Washington and his name on buildings. The administration recently added his name to the United States Institute of Peace building near the White House.

Trump has sought to revamp the Kennedy Center, taking over its leadership and criticizing its upkeep. Congress must approve any name change to the institution, said one source with ties to the institution.

Leavitt, in a post on X, said the Kennedy Center board had voted unanimously to call it "the Trump-Kennedy Center, because of the unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building."

U.S. Representative Joyce Beatty, an ex officio board member, disputed that. "For the record. This was not unanimous. I was muted on the call and not allowed to speak or voice my opposition to this move," she wrote on X. "Also for the record, this was not on the agenda."

Earlier this month the president hosted the Kennedy Center Honors, the institution's flagship awards show for the arts, and referred to it as the "Trump-Kennedy Center" at one point from the stage. Yet on Thursday, he told reporters he was surprised and honored by the board's decision.

"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 said in her post.

Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. The center has been seen as a memorial to him and the ideals he espoused.

"The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law. It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says," wrote former U.S. Representative Joe Kennedy, a grandnephew of the slain president, on X.

After taking little interest in it during his first term in office, Trump launched a revamp of the Kennedy Center shortly after returning to power. He ousted its chair and installed a new board that made Trump chair instead. He also fired the center's longtime president, tapping Richard Grenell, a former ambassador to Germany, to run it in her place.

Trump has complained that the center had become run-down and has worked to raise funds to make renovations. 

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Lisa Shumaker)