Posted on 08/13/2026 6:41:30 PM PDT by Libloather
WASHINGTON — The Kennedy Center’s board moved Thursday to rename the area around the iconic performing arts center the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza” and to add Trump’s name back onto the building’s facade — after a federal judge ordered its removal.
Trump’s allies on the board pushed through the changes during a meeting that lasted more than two hours, after Democrats including Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty objected to Trump’s plans to renovate and rebrand the aging facility.
Trump, who chairs the board, participated virtually in part of the meeting and pushed back on criticism of his plans to pour $250 million into refreshing the center, which opened in 1971. The refresh will require the main building’s closure for about two years.
In a twist, the board’s latest plan calls for Trump’s name to appear beneath the longtime signage on the cavernous main hall, to read: “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.”
The board voted last December to rebrand it as the “Trump Kennedy Center,” but the change was nixed by US District Judge Christopher Cooper, who ordered the current president’s name removed because it lacked congressional ratification.
Democrats slammed the latest actions.
“This morning’s decision to close the Center and the surprise agenda item to put Donald Trump’s name back on the building was more of the same,” Beatty said in a statement. “This latest development is a transparent effort to circumvent the Court’s ruling, and flies in the face of the statutes that Congress passed.”
Paolo Zampolli, a presidential appointee to the board, fired back at critics, urging Trump’s name to be inscribed in large letters and ridiculing opposition to the temporary closure as willfully ignorant of necessary repairs and improvements.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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Isn’t the Kennedy Center just a piece of this whole complex?
How pathologically insecure and graceless would an 80 yeat old man have to be to obsess about this crap?
I agree
Frankly I think that little to nothing should be named after people who haven’t been dead 100 years. Most things should be named after features. Ie. Elm street, Riverside School....
I’m not sure what you mean? Which complex?
Are you a Never-Trumper?
Where did the article say Trump himself pushed for the name change?
I have had a consistent position on the renaming wars ever since the democrats went on their Kennedy worship binge after JFK’s assassinations. No renaming, at least of anything significant, until someone has been dead at least 50 years.
I’m willing to carve out exceptions recognizing heroic service. Commissioning The Sullivans in WWII is an iconic example. But the bar should be absolute for sitting politicos with God-King complexes.
I know, I know, there’s a lot of renaming to be done, starting with the Robert C. Byrd Porta-Potty in the Robert C. Byrd Memorial Park off the Robert C. Byrd Parkway; the wonder is that the whole state wasn’t renamed.
For someone who says he wants to drain the swamp, Trump’s obsession with Pharaonic monuments to himself is a tell. The swamp isn’t drained. And his name will come off everything he puts it on now about 15 minutes after the next democrat president is sworn in.
GO President Trump, GO. Here's maybe the finest Trump pic ever posted: inspecting the Chinese soldiers. Take a look at President Trump's face. Supreme confidence. Talk about oneupsmanship. Look at Xi's face.
The problem is dilution.
By adding the Trump name, the god Kennedy name is diluted.
Equating the Trump name to that of god is a sin of quantum magnitude
They know who kept it from degenerating into a ramble-shackle tenement...
Love that pic-——thx.
Pretty good. Right?
It should have remained as the Cultural Center. A DEM President renamed it.
Along those lines, he could have secured support from Sen Whites Only Country Club by naming the bathroom the Whitehouse Outhouse.
EC
Bottom line, building is a mess and Trump is fixing it.
‘quantum magnitude’ seems like an oxymoron.
Just so you know...The Cultural Center was named The JFK Memorial Center by Congress...true...but it was by voice vote...so there is no record. Imagine that...Johnson signed off.
I don’t see anything wrong with it being named after Kennedy. He was involved in fundraising for it, and his wife was involved with it too.
There are separate pieces. to this. Maybe a statue at the entrance...
The building has been added to several times.
And it was Eisenhower...not Kennedy who was responsible for the Complex.
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