The board of trustees at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted Thursday to rename America’s premier cultural institution the “Trump-Kennedy Center.” There’s just one problem: the board almost certainly lacks the authority to do it.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the news on X, praising what she called “the unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building.” The full new name will be “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” according to Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Daravi.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office he was “surprised” and “honored” by the vote, calling the board “very distinguished people.” Which they certainly are, given he appointed most of them himself.
The Legal Problem Nobody Wants to Talk About
Here’s the inconvenient truth that threatens to derail this entire exercise in vanity: Congress named the Kennedy Center. In 1964, two months after President Kennedy’s assassination, President Lyndon Johnson signed legislation formally designating the former National Cultural Center as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Federal law explicitly states that “no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas” of the building.
“There is absolutely no way they can do this legally,” said David Super, a professor at Georgetown Law who specializes in legislation. But he added a critical caveat: “The administration is not concerning itself with laws unless it has a realistic prospect of getting sued.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries put it bluntly: “The Kennedy Center Board has no authority to actually rename the Kennedy Center in the absence of legislative action.”
The Kennedy Family Responds
The Kennedys are not taking this quietly. Maria Shriver, the late president’s niece, called the move “beyond comprehension” in a post on X. “He was a man who was interested in the arts, interested in culture, interested in education, language, history,” she wrote. “He brought the arts into the White House, and he and my Aunt Jackie amplified the arts, celebrated the arts, stood up for the arts and artists.”
Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s grandson, was characteristically direct, writing on social media: “SEND ME TO CONGRESS TO SMOKE THESE FOOLS.” He also disputed the “unanimous” vote claim, noting that “microphones were muted.”
Former Rep. Joe Kennedy III, a grandnephew of the assassinated president, framed the legal argument concisely: “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.”
Not So Unanimous After All
About that “unanimous” vote. Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who serves as an ex-officio member of the board, says it was anything but. “Each time I tried to speak, I was muted,” she said in a video posted to social media. She also noted that the renaming question “was not on the agenda” provided to board members before the meeting.
The current board reads like a who’s who of Trump’s inner circle. After the president ousted the previous board members and installed himself as chairman in February, he filled the seats with loyalists including White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Attorney General Pam Bondi, second lady Usha Vance, Fox News host Laura Ingraham, and longtime ally Richard Grenell, who now serves as the center’s president.
The Irony of “Saving” the Building
Trump and his allies justify the renaming by claiming he “saved” the Kennedy Center from “financial ruin and physical destruction.” The reality on the ground tells a different story.
Since Trump’s February takeover, ticket sales have collapsed to their lowest levels since the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a Washington Post analysis, 43 percent of seats in the Opera House, Concert Hall, and Eisenhower Theater went unsold between September and mid-October – compared to just 7 percent in fall 2024. Credit card transaction data showed spending on Kennedy Center tickets dropped by more than half compared with the previous year.
Daniel Foster, a violist who has been with the National Symphony Orchestra for 30 years, told the Washingtonian he’s been performing to rows of empty seats. “The money that comes in from ticket sales is not just gravy,” he said, warning that continued decline could jeopardize the center’s future.
Francesca Zambello, artistic director of the Washington National Opera, confirmed that sales were down 38 percent and contributions had also fallen, attributing the downturn to “audience resistance following the leadership change.”
The Exodus of Talent
The financial bleeding traces directly back to Trump’s hostile takeover and his promise to eliminate “woke” programming. Major acts have fled. Hamilton, the most commercially successful Broadway property of the past decade, canceled its planned 2026 run. Producer Jeffrey Seller said the show “simply cannot, in good conscience, participate and be a part of this new culture that is being imposed on the Kennedy Center.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda, the show’s creator, was unequivocal: “The Kennedy Center was not created in this spirit, and we’re not going to be a part of it while it is the Trump Kennedy Center.”
The roster of cancellations extends well beyond Hamilton. Issa Rae, Rhiannon Giddens, Low Cut Connie, and novelist Louise Penny all pulled out of scheduled appearances. The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington saw their performance canceled by the new leadership. Artistic advisors Renée Fleming, Ben Folds, and Shonda Rhimes resigned their positions.
A Pattern of Institutional Capture
The Kennedy Center renaming fits into Trump’s broader second-term project of reshaping Washington’s cultural and institutional landscape in his own image. He’s already transformed the Kennedy-era Rose Garden into a paved patio. Republican lawmakers have introduced multiple proposals to rename the Kennedy Center, including one that would have honored first lady Melania Trump.
Trump secured $257 million from Congress for Kennedy Center renovations as part of his “One Big Beautiful Bill.” The center recently hosted the FIFA World Cup draw, an event Trump has repeatedly touted. At the Kennedy Center Honors earlier this month, Trump became the first president to host the ceremony, personally selecting honorees including Sylvester Stallone, KISS, and Gloria Gaynor.
The president has been openly telegraphing his intentions for months. In August, he wrote on Truth Social about “GREAT Nominees for the TRUMP/KENNEDY CENTER, whoops, I mean, KENNEDY CENTER.” At the Kennedy Center Honors, he joked about “the Trump-Kennedy Center,” then added, “I mean, the ‘Kennedy Center.’ I’m sorry. This is terribly embarrassing.”
What Happens Next
The board’s vote creates an unusual legal limbo. The trustees may adopt new branding or use the Trump name in marketing materials, but the formal legal designation of the building remains the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts until Congress acts. And there’s no indication Senate Democrats, who still have enough votes to block legislation, will cooperate.
Legal experts note that while the board’s decision Thursday was likely unlawful, it’s unclear whether anyone would have standing to challenge it in court. Trump’s second term has been defined by this kind of legal gray zone – actions that push past traditional boundaries while daring opponents to find someone with the right to sue.
Meanwhile, the seats remain empty. The artists continue canceling. And the institution that Congress created as a living memorial to a murdered president now bears, at least in the White House’s telling, the name of a man whose relationship with the arts has always been purely transactional.
As one Kennedy Center staff member told the Washington Post: “The brand itself has become polarizing, which is unprecedented in my experience.”
Unprecedented. That word keeps coming up.