Donald Trump is renaming the Kennedy Center after himself. The John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts, better known as the Kennedy Center, will know be known as the Trump-Kennedy Center. Trump put his own name first and everything. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made the announcement on Twitter:
I have just been informed that the highly respected Board of the Kennedy Center, some of the most successful people from all parts of the world, have just voted unanimously to rename the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center, because 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.
I have just been informed that the highly respected Board of the Kennedy Center, some of the most successful people from all parts of the world, have just voted unanimously to rename the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center, because of the unbelievable work President Trump…
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) December 18, 2025
In February, Donald Trump appointed himself Kennedy Center chairman, and Ben Folds resigned his post as National Symphony Orchestra artistic advisor in protest. The board that voted on the name change is the board that Trump appointed. According to CNBC, Kennedy Center sales and staffing have reportedly “declined sharply” since Trump’s takeover.
The Kennedy Center wasn’t originally named after John F. Kennedy. Eisenhower signed the law to “provide for a National Cultural Center” in 1958, and Lyndon Johnson signed a bill naming it after Kennedy in 1963, shortly after Kennedy’s assassination. The facility itself opened in 1971. Since then, it’s been a Washington, DC institution and the site of the annual Kennedy Center Honors, a presidential award for artists of great importance, and it hosts performances all year long.
Earlier this month, Trump hosted the Kennedy Center Honors himself, bestowing laurels upon KISS, Sylvester Stallone, George Strait, Gloria Gaynor, and Phantom Of The Opera star Michael Crawford. Cheap Trick performed at the ceremony, and they said that they did it to support KISS and promote the arts — “for those reasons, and no others.”
