The GOP Wants to Now Rename The Kennedy Center for Trump…You’ve Got to Be Kidding Me
by Chris Peterson
Some things should be beneath even today’s GOP. But alas, here we are.
This week, Rep. Bob Onder of Missouri introduced a bill that would rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the nation’s most prestigious arts institution, as the Donald J. Trump Center for the Performing Arts.
Yes, you read that right.
The Kennedy Center. The living memorial to a president who famously believed that “art establishes the basic human truths.” The place that has hosted generations of artists, presidents, performers, and legends. Now, in 2025, a sitting member of Congress is pushing to slap Trump’s name on the front of it like it’s a tacky hotel.
Let’s not pretend this is about honoring a lifetime of arts advocacy. Trump skipped the Kennedy Center Honors during his presidency. He made headlines for firing board members and installing his political allies instead. He didn’t just disengage from the arts, he actively tried to defund them.
Now suddenly, he’s the guy we should rename the building for? Come on.
And it’s not just Trump. House Republicans recently passed an amendment to rename the Opera House inside the Kennedy Center after Melania Trump. Because of course, why stop at one nameplate when you can go full rebrand?
This isn't about celebrating culture. It's about erasing history. It's about replacing vision with vanity. And it’s about sticking it to the left by desecrating sacred cultural space.
Even Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s grandson, stepped in to call it what it is. Ego-driven nonsense. He’s right. Trump isn’t trying to support the arts, he’s trying to bulldoze over the legacy of someone who did.
And the worst part? It’s working. This nonsense is sliding through on appropriations bills. Tucked away, folded in, voted on while we’re all watching something else. That’s not just disappointing. That’s infuriating. We should be furious.
Renaming the Kennedy Center for Trump is like renaming the Lincoln Memorial for someone who once read a book about Lincoln. It’s a stunt. A branding exercise. A monument to ego masquerading as legislation.
Let’s be clear. Trump’s relationship with the arts has been transactional at best, openly hostile at worst. He’s not a patron of the arts. He’s a patron of applause. And let’s not forget. The Kennedy Center was created not just to present art but to honor and elevate it. To be a national symbol of the role arts play in a functioning democracy. Turning it into a personal trophy for the man who once said “I alone can fix it” isn’t just disrespectful. It’s un-American.
Also, let’s talk timing. This bill was introduced the same year Trump named himself chairman of the Kennedy Center’s board and replaced half the trustees with loyalists. It’s not a tribute. It’s a takeover. One that echoes the kind of strongman gestures we tend to mock when they happen in other countries.
You know what makes this particularly gross? The Kennedy Center is one of the last bipartisan, shared civic spaces in this country. The Kennedy Center Honors have historically brought people together. Democrats, Republicans, artists, public servants, and audiences of all stripes. It’s one of the rare nights where America seems to celebrate something bigger than itself. This bill spits in the face of all that.
It sends the message that nothing, not even our cultural institutions, can remain untouched by political score-settling and vanity projects. It’s not just misguided. It’s dangerous.
So here’s the call to action.
Speak up. Call your representatives. Write letters. Post on social. Raise a little hell. Let’s make it known that the Kennedy Center, named for a man who actually supported artists and believed deeply in the role of the arts in a free society, should stay just that. The Kennedy Center.
Not a branding opportunity. Not a revenge play. And definitely not another monument to Donald Trump’s ego. We already have one Trump Tower. That’s enough.