Relatives of the late President John F. Kennedy criticized the center’s board of directors, saying they could not legally change the name.
Published December 20, 2025
Donald Trump’s name has been added to the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. It comes just one day after his hand-picked board members controversially voted to rename the arts institution, marking the first time a national institution has been named after a sitting U.S. president.
Workers on Friday added metal letters to the building’s exterior declaring it “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Performing Arts Center.”
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“Today, we proudly announce our updated exterior designation in honor of President Donald J. Trump’s leadership and John F. Kennedy’s enduring legacy,” the center said on social media.
The family of former President Kennedy, who was killed by an assassin’s bullet in 1963, historians and Democratic lawmakers criticized the move, saying only an act of Congress could change the name of the center, which was designated as a living memorial to Kennedy a year after his assassination.
“The Kennedy Center was named by law. Changing the name would require an amendment to the 1964 law,” former House historian Ray Smock told The Associated Press. “The Kennedy Center Board of Directors is not a legislative body. Congress makes laws,” Smock said.
The law that gave the center its name explicitly prohibits the board from making the center a monument to someone else or putting someone else’s name on the building’s exterior, the Associated Press reported.
Kennedy’s niece, Kerry Kennedy, said in a social media post that she would personally remove Trump’s name once his presidential term ends.
“Three years and one month from today, I’m going to grab a pickaxe and rip the letters out of that building, but I need you to help me hold the ladder. Are you in there?” she wrote to X.
Naming a national institution after a sitting president is unprecedented in American history. Landmarks such as the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and, in fact, the Kennedy Center, are all named after the death of notable American leaders.
President Kennedy’s grandnephew, former Congressman Joe Kennedy III, also said that the Kennedy Center, like the Lincoln Memorial, is a “living monument to a fallen president” and cannot be renamed “no matter what anyone says.”
President Trump claimed Thursday that he was “surprised” by the Kennedy Center’s renaming, even though he personally purged the institution’s previous board for being “too woke.”
He previously talked about adding his name to the center and appointing him chair of its board earlier this year.
President Trump has sought to rein in the Kennedy Center since the start of his second term as part of an attack on cultural institutions that his administration accuses of being too left-wing.
