In a move that prompted immediate questions about its legality, the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., voted on Thursday to add President Donald Trump’s name to an institution he has roiled since taking office in January.
The move, following a year-long fascination with a center that has not been a top-of-mind priority for other presidents in the way that it has been for Trump, was met with disapproval from members of Kennedy’s family and legal experts who say it goes against a stipulation put in place after Congress renamed the center in the wake of JFK’s assassination in 1963.
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As reported by CNN, spokeswoman Roma Daravi said, “The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees voted unanimously today to name the institution The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
The claim of unanimity was disputed by Democratic Representative Joyce Beatty, an ex-officio member of the board, who said, “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. Each time I tried to speak, I was muted.”
In a message on X, Joe Kennedy III, a former congressman and the great-nephew of the late president, said, “The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president and 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.”
But that has not stopped Trump or his acolytes, who already changed the name to The Trump Kennedy Center on the institution’s website and, as reported today by The New York Times, added the president’s mantle to the center’s façade.
In June, Trump was booed at a Kennedy Center performance of Les Misérables, and Vice President J.D. Vance was booed at a concert by the National Symphony Orchestra in March. In October, the Washington Post published a damning exposé cataloguing staff turmoil and claiming ticket sales have “plummeted” since Trump made the Kennedy Center a politicized cause célèbre.
