The Kennedy Center’s board of trustees voted Thursday to rename the center the Trump-Kennedy Center, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X.
Leavitt said the board unanimously renamed the center based on Trump’s improvements this year to the building’s reputation and financial situation and repairs to its facilities. In February Trump appointed himself as the chair of the center’s board, firing former president David Rubenstein and others who don’t “share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” pointing to the venue’s drag performances that he said are “specifically targeting our youth.”
“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 the post. “The building will no doubt attain new levels of success and grandeur.”
Trump appointed media figures like Laura Ingraham and people in his administration and family like White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to the board shortly after the overhaul.
The White House did not immediately return a request for comment.
Kennedy Center Vice President of Public Relations Roma Davari said in a statement to The Hatchet trustees unanimously approved the name change based on Trump’s contributions to the center in his second term and reflects its bipartisan support.
“The unanimous vote recognizes that the current Chairman saved the institution from financial ruin and physical destruction,” Davari said in a statement. “The new Trump Kennedy Center reflects the unequivocal bipartisan support for America’s cultural center for generations to come.”
U.S. Representative Joyce Beatty (D-OH) — who has served on the center’s board since former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi appointed her in April 2021 — said in a post on X the person in control of the call muted her as she attempted to object and vote against the renaming. She said the vote was not unanimous and was not on the meeting’s agenda.
“Each time I tried to speak, I was muted,” Beatty said in the post. “Participants were not allowed to voice their concerns who were online.”
Representative Beatty did not immediately return a request for comment.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries lambasted the vote during a Thursday press conference, saying Republicans should focus on lowering prices, not pleasing Trump. He also said the attempt to rename the center oversteps the board of trustee’s authority under law that created the Kennedy Center and designated its name.
“They don’t have the power to do it. Only Congress can rename the Kennedy Center,” Jeffries said.
The center’s founding statute requires the board assure that “no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas.”
Trump reacted to the vote as he held a press conference signing an executive order speeding up the process of reclassifying cannabis, saying the decision surprised and honored him and that Congress should be prepared to put money into repairing the building.
“We had a lot of donors come in for record setting numbers, so we saved the Kennedy Center,” Trump said during the press conference. “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.”
Idaho Republican Representative Mike Simpson gained committee approval in July for a proposal to rename the center’s opera house after First Lady Melania Trump, but the Senate didn’t include a similar provision in their version of the same bill, and the bill hasn’t moved since summer.
The Washington Post reported in October ticket sales at the Center dropped after the takeover. Several productions, including Hamilton, cancelled their performances at the center due to Trump’s takeover.
The name change comes after federal officials installed signage reading “Donald J. Trump” on the U.S. Institute of Peace in Foggy Bottom amid ongoing legal battles between the administration and USIP leadership over who controls the building.
