US President Donald Trump continues to reimagine The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in his image with an unprecedented change of title.
The performance venue has officially been renamed the Trump Kennedy Center as of 19 December 2025, per its website, just one day after the board voted to change the name in the president’s honour. Built as a living monument to the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, after he launched a $30m fundraising campaign for the Center’s construction in 1963, the Kennedy Center’s designation as a memorial was signed into law by by President Lyndon B. Johnson two months after Kennedy’s assassination.
President Trump’s name has already been added to the Washington D.C. performing art centre’s facade. According to the New York Times, it has been “generally understood” that this power lies with Congress, raising questions of legality. On 18 December, Trump told reporters that he was “surprised” that the board, of which he is chair, moved to change the Kennedy Center’s name.
“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. So I was very honoured by it,” he told journalists in the Oval Office.
In February of 2025, Trump abruptly fired several members of the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees and named himself the chair, writing a post on Truth Social promising to put a halt to “Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth” at the rarified theater. In April of 2025, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts canceled contracts for World Pride-related events in May and June; that August, Trump joked about changing the venue’s name in a post on Truth Social, writing, “GREAT Nominees for the TRUMP/KENNEDY CENTER, whoops, I mean, KENNEDY CENTER.”
Former Representative Joseph Kennedy III, the late President Kennedy’s grandnephew, released a statement on 18 December, declaring that the centre is “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.”
Six sitting Democrats who have been previously involved with the Kennedy Center board also released a statement, declaring an “unwavering commitment to holding this administration accountable”. Senator Chuck Schumer and representative Hakeem Jeffries, the leading Democrats in the Senate and House of Representatives, respectively, were among those who signed the statement.
