Despite statute, White House claims board adds Trump's name to Kennedy Center

John T. Bennett, CQ-Roll Call on Dec 18, 2025

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s handpicked Kennedy Center Board has voted to rename the performing arts facility as the Trump-Kennedy Center, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

The move is yet another by the second Trump administration to blow past an existing norm or statute, including one that established the name of the facility as the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.

“I was honored by it. ... It is a very distinguished board, the most distinguished people in the country. And I was surprised by it. I was honored by it,” Trump told reporters Thursday in the Oval Office. “You know, we’ve, we’re saving the building. We saved the building. The building was in such bad shape, both physically, financially and every other way. And now it’s very solid, very strong. … And the Kennedy Center is really, really back strong.”

After raising private-sector funds to start renovations of the center, he repeated his claim from the summer that his administration would ask lawmakers to help foot the massive bill, saying: “And we’re also to get, get Congress to put up a lot of money, and other people to put up a lot of money,” he said.

In a social media post, Leavitt said the vote was unanimous and based on “the unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building.”

“Congratulations to President Donald J. Trump, and likewise, congratulations to President Kennedy, because this will be a truly great team long into the future!” she wrote on social media. Kennedy, the 35th president, was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963.

Though originally envisioned as the National Cultural Center in a 1958 law, it was renamed the John F. Kennedy Center by an act of Congress in 1964 as a living memorial to the deceased president. It formally opened in September 1971 with a requiem Mass honoring the late Kennedy.

“The building will no doubt attain new levels of success and grandeur,” Trump’s top spokeswoman said. “Not only from the standpoint of its reconstruction, but also financially, and its reputation.”

Trump recently received a lengthy hands-on tour of the facility and an update on a number of renovations to the familiar white building positioned on the Washington, D.C., banks of the Potomac River.

That came after the president earlier this year essentially took over management of the center, installing a number of loyalists to its board, including: White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, second lady Usha Vance, Trump’s longtime social media guru Dan Scavino and now-U.S. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor, among other backers. He named former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell as the center’s president.

The new Trump World-centric board elected Trump himself as its chairman.

“Well, it’s very exciting being chairman, but maybe more important is saving this incredible structure, building and concept,” Trump said at the center on Dec. 7, prior to its annual honors gala. “And this building was (not) going to be brought back to life before we started.”

Flashing his typical bravado, the chairman president declared that night: “It’ll be better than it was from day one.”

But Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, an ex-officio member of the board, sharply disputed the notion that the vote was unanimous in a post on X on Thursday.

“Be clear: I was on that call and as I tried to push my button to voice my concern, to ask questions and certainly not to vote in support of this, I was muted,” she said. “Each time I tried to speak I was muted.”

“Participants were not allowed to voice their concerns who were online,” she continued.

“Clearly the Congress has a say in this,” Beatty said. “This center, the Kennedy Center, was created by the Congress. I think it is important for us to know that this is yet another attempt to evade the law and not let the people have a say.”

Former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy, III, a grandnephew of the late president, also expressed disapproval on social media.

“The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law,” he tweeted. “It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says.

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