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📂 Category: Donald Trump news,John F. Kennedy Center of Performing Arts,kennedy center
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Kennedy Center on Friday quickly added Donald Trump’s name to the performing arts center designated by Congress as a living memorial to John F. Kennedy, a day after the center’s board of trustees voted to make the change.
Read more: Trump’s select board votes to rename performing arts center to ‘Trump Kennedy Center’
Blue tarps were hung in front of the building to conceal workers on scaffolding while the shift was being carried out. Hours later, the center had a new name: the Donald J. Trump Center and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.
Blue fabrics hang from columns covering part of the facade at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a day after its board announced it would rename the institution the Donald J. Trump Center and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, D.C., December 19, 2025. Photo by Kevin LaMarque/Reuters
The Board of Trustees, selected by Trump, voted unanimously Thursday to add his name to what has been dedicated as a living memorial to the Democratic president. Trump, a Republican, is also chairman.
Critics of the vote, including Democratic members of Congress who are ex-officio board members, as well as some historians, insist that only Congress can change the name.
Workers install letters reading “Donald” on the facade of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, D.C., December 19, 2025. Photo by Kevin LaMarque/Reuters
“The Kennedy Center was named by law. Changing the name would require revising the 1964 law,” Ray Smoak, a former House historian, said in an email. “The Kennedy Center Board of Directors is not a legislative entity. Congress makes the laws.”
A man holds a sign with President Donald Trump’s name added on the facade of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, D.C., December 19, 2025. Photo by Kevin LaMarque/Reuters
Congress named the Center for the Performing Arts a living memorial to Kennedy in 1964, a year after his assassination. The law expressly prohibits the Board of Trustees from turning the center into a memorial to anyone else, and from placing another person’s name on the outside of the building.
A worker stands on an elevator bearing President Donald Trump’s name after it was added to the facade of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, D.C., December 19, 2025. Photo by Kevin LaMarque/Reuters
Some Kennedy family members oppose the renaming.
The Kennedy Center is the latest building in Washington to which Trump’s name has been added. The United States Institute of Peace was recently renamed after him.
The Kennedy Center did not respond to an email request for comment on Friday.
AP National Writer Hillel Italie in New York contributed to this report.
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