The Kennedy Center’s governing board has just voted unanimously to rename the Washington, D.C., performing arts complex after President Donald Trump.
On Thursday, the board voted to change the venue’s name to The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.
The move is a major symbolic victory for Trump, who has made the institution a cultural priority of his second term.
Trump had publicly hinted at a renaming, and the unanimous vote marks the most significant step to date.
It remains unclear when the change will formally take effect, and the procedural path forward has not yet been announced.
Efforts to attach Trump’s name to the center have circulated for months.
In July 2025, Rep. Bob Onder (R-MO) introduced the “Make Entertainment Great Again Act,” which proposed renaming the entire facility the Donald J. Trump Center for the Performing Arts.
Days later, the House Appropriations Committee advanced an amendment to rename the center’s Opera House after First Lady Melania Trump.
Kennedy Family Pushback
President Kennedy’s radical Democrat grandson, Jack Schlossberg, objected to the move, pointing to a 1983 federal statute that restricts new memorials or plaques inside the center.
The statute says the Board’s duty is to maintain the site “as the National Center for the Performing Arts, a living memorial to John Fitzgerald Kennedy … [and] the Board shall assure that after December 2, 1983, no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.”
Schlossberg argues the law is explicit.
“Plain reading of the statute makes clear — YOU CAN’T DO THAT,” the 32-year-old wrote on Instagram.
“Law prohibits renaming Kennedy Center.”
Trump’s Restructuring of the Board
Early in 2025, Trump removed the existing Board of Trustees, naming himself Chairman and appointing Richard Grenell as interim executive director.
Trump declared at the time: “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA.”
Grenell echoed the administration’s frustration with prior programming and donor trends.
“Corporations don’t want to fund an all-lesbian cast of Othello,” he said.
What Happens Next
The unanimous board vote signals strong internal alignment behind Trump’s cultural agenda.
However, several legal and procedural questions remain, including whether the 1983 statute limits renaming and whether congressional action will be required to finalize the change.
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