The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted on Thursday to rename the storied arts institution the “Trump Kennedy Center,” an unprecedented change for the U.S. presidential memorial that drew swift condemnation from Kennedy family members and Democratic leaders.
The Kennedy Center confirmed the vote in an email to The Washington Post. The law establishing the building designates it as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
“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,” said Roma Daravi, the center’s vice president of public relations, in an email. “The unanimous vote recognizes that the current Chairman saved the institution from financial ruin and physical destruction.”
The name change is now reflected on the center’s website. The White House rapid response account on X posted a new logo.
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) December 18, 2025
“The Trump Kennedy Center shows a bipartisan commitment to the Arts,” Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell wrote on X. Officials did not cite an authority for the board’s ability to change the institution’s name, and critics called the move illegal.
President Donald Trump joined the board meeting virtually, which was held in Palm Beach, Florida, and remained until the end of the call, when he thanked members for their vote, according to an attendee who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it.
The vote comes after months of Trump repeatedly joking about the name change, including at the Kennedy Center Honors earlier this month. It follows a year of upheaval at the center, after Trump overhauled the institution in February, sparking a wave of firings and resignations. Ticket sales have fallen sharply in the center’s three largest venues, according to an October analysis by The Post.
“I was surprised by it. I was honored by it,” Trump said of the vote at an executive-order signing Thursday afternoon. “… We saved the building.”
Trump noted Congress’s $257 million appropriation for repairs and maintenance at the center and recent private donations, adding: “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.”
Michael Kaiser, who was president of the Kennedy Center from 2001 to 2014, said audiences, artists and donors have already come to see the building as politicized since Trump’s takeover. “I’m not sure the naming would change how many people will interact with the organization,” he said.
He continued: “We always called it a living memorial to President Kennedy. I think just as we would have a hard time imagining the Washington Monument or Lincoln Memorial named for someone other than Washington or Lincoln, it’s difficult to imagine the Kennedy Center named after anyone other than President Kennedy.”
Trump in February purged members of the board not appointed by him, installed loyalists — including several White House aides, second lady Usha Vance and Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham and Maria Bartiromo — and became its new chair. The board also includes nonvoting ex officio members, such as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., some of whom were at Thursday’s meeting.
Several prominent Democrats who are ex officio members — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (New York), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (New York), Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (Rhode Island), Sen. Mark Warner (Virginia), Rep. Rick Larsen (Washington) and Rep. Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (Ohio) — denounced the change and said Beatty was muted while attempting to speak out during the board meeting, to which she called in.
“Beyond using the Kennedy Center to reward his friends and political allies, President Trump is now attempting to affix his name to yet another public institution without legal authority,” the group of ex officio members said in a statement.
The meeting attendee who spoke anonymously said that Beatty tried to speak twice during the vote before someone disabled the capability for virtual attendees to unmute. The Kennedy Center’s Daravi said, in response to questions from The Post, “The entire board was invited to attend in person and the privilege of listening in on the meeting was granted to all members, even those without a vote, such as ex-officio member Joyce Beatty.”
Members of the Kennedy family condemned the vote to change the name.
“Some things leave you speechless, and enraged, and in a state of disbelief. At times such as that, it’s better to be quiet. For how long, I can’t say,” said Maria Shriver, a niece of Kennedy, on X Thursday.
Joe Kennedy, a former Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, said the building is named for his great-uncle by law. “It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says,” he wrote on X.
Kerry Kennedy, a human rights activist and sister of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., slammed the news in a statement to The Post.
“President Trump and his administration have spent the past year repressing free expression, targeting artists, journalists, and comedians, and erasing the history of Americans whose contributions made our nation better and more just,” she said. “President Kennedy proudly stood for justice, peace, equality, dignity, diversity, and compassion for those who suffer. President Trump stands in opposition to these values, and his name should not be placed alongside President Kennedy’s.”
The board’s vote was met with some weary recognition from staffers, who were notified of the vote in an all-staff email from Daravi. “The vibes are WTF,” said one employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the center.
A former employee expressed disbelief: “I’m completely blown away by this. I didn’t think they could [do this], according to the bylaws.”
The news of the vote was first shared on X by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who praised “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.”
The Kennedy Center is a public-private institution founded to be the nation’s cultural center and a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy. Its founding statute mandates that the board “assure” that “no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas” of the building.
House Republicans have suggested renaming the building after the Trumps. Earlier this year, reviewing an amendment to a spending bill that would change the name of the Kennedy Center’s Opera House to the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House,” David Super, a Georgetown law professor, told The Post that such a name change would require Congress’s permission.
“That statute is pretty unequivocal, and I can’t really find any loopholes in it that would allow this to happen,” he said in July. “So I assume that’s why they’re pushing legislation rather than sending letters to the board or whatever.”
George Stevens Jr., the founder of the American Film Institute and the co-creator of the Kennedy Center Honors, said the center “sustains President Kennedy’s memory” and stressed that only Congress, which established the center in 1964, can decide the building’s name. “I believe that citizens who love America and love the arts will want the law to be followed,” he said.
The vote to rename of the Kennedy Center represents the latest effort by Trump’s allies to honor the president by putting his name on government buildings and programs.
The Trump administration earlier this month rebranded the headquarters of the United States Institute of Peace as the “Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace” — a move that legal experts and Democrats said was illegal, given that the organization was created by an act of Congress. The White House also hosted an event to mark the creation of “Trump accounts,” new savings accounts for children that were created in Republicans’ massive tax and immigration legislation this year.
Trump has inserted himself into the Kennedy Center’s operations and image, and made himself host of its annual Honors event earlier this month. When asked about renaming the center that night, Daravi said, “This is the Kennedy Center, and we are at the Kennedy Center [Honors].”
Asked the same question, Trump said: “It’s not up to me. … It’s a really prestigious board, and that’s up to them. I don’t know what they’re doing about that.”
Walter Blotkamp, a 64-year-old retired marketing professional who has occasionally been a Kennedy Center subscriber, called the change “inane.”
“I feel sorry for the community of Washington because it doesn’t feel like it’s a center for everybody anymore,” Blotkamp said. “It feels like it’s a center for the few or for those from a certain persuasion.”
Blotkamp had visited the center Thursday afternoon “to pay homage” after he heard the news. Until the board changes or “comes to their senses,” he said, “I probably won’t step foot in there again.”
Lisa Kao, a former fundraiser for the Republican Party who previously worked for Secretary of State Marco Rubio, was visiting the John F. Kennedy exhibit at the center Thursday evening and said she was surprised by the news, but not necessarily against it. “I am shocked, but it is Trump town now,” she said.
Kao suspects the president wants to “stand out” like Kennedy did. “Trump does want to get his name on everything,” she said. “I understand that. He’s an entrepreneur. He’s a businessman.”
Elahe Izadi contributed to this report.
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