Kennedy Center board votes to rename ‘Trump-Kennedy Center,’ White House says – The Washington Post

Kennedy Center board votes to rename to ‘Trump-Kennedy Center’

Trustees voted to rename the center after President Donald Trump, who is also the board chair. It was unclear whether such a change is legal.

Updated, December 18, 2025 at 2:33 p.m. EST, 36 minutes ago, 4 min

By Kelsey Ables and Janay Kingsberry

The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has voted to rename the storied arts institution the “Trump-Kennedy Center,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X on Thursday afternoon.

The Kennedy Center confirmed the vote in an email to The Washington Post. It was unclear whether such a change is legal.

“The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees voted unanimously today to name the institution The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” wrote Roma Daravi,the center’s vice president of public relations. “The unanimous vote recognizes that the current Chairman saved the institution from financial ruin and physical destruction. The new Trump Kennedy Center reflects the unequivocal bipartisan support for America’s cultural center for generations to come.”

The apparent change comes after months of President Donald Trump repeatedly joking about it, including at the Kennedy Center Honors earlier this month. It follows a year of upheaval at the center, after Trump overhauled the institution in February, sparking a wave of firings and resignations. Trump is chairman of the Kennedy Center board. Ticket sales have fallen sharply in the center’s three largest venues, according to an October analysis by The Post.

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“I was surprised by it. I was honored by it,” Trump said at an executive-order signing Thursday afternoon. “You know, we’ve, we’re saving the building. We saved the building.”

He noted Congress’s $257 million appropriation for repairs and maintenance at the center and recent private donations, adding: “This was brought up by one of the very distinguished board members, and they voted on it. And there’s a lot of board members, and they voted unanimously.”

“I was muted on the call and not allowed to speak or voice my opposition to this move,” Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio member of the board, said in an X post.

“I’m devastated but not at all surprised,” said a former center staff member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. The president “has been floating that change since the beginning almost.”

In her social media post, Leavitt congratulated the president, calling the move the result 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 added.

Officials did not immediately cite an authority for the board’s ability to change the institution’s name.

The Kennedy Center is a public-private institution founded to be the nation’s cultural center and a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy. Its founding statute mandates that the board “assure” that “no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas” of the building.

House Republicans have suggested renaming the building after the Trumps. Earlier this year, reviewing an amendment to a spending bill that would change the name of the Kennedy Center’s Opera House to the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House,” David Super, a Georgetown law professor, told The Post that such a name change would require Congress’s permission.

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