WASHINGTON—The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted Thursday to inscribe President Trump's name on the building's facade, two months after a federal judge ordered the removal of an earlier renaming effort.
The vote is the second time the Trump-aligned board has moved to attach the president's name to the historic performing arts venue on the Potomac. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the first vote—taken after Trump replaced most of the board's members—was unanimous.
The new approach changes the building's official name to "The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump." Rather than replacing Kennedy's name entirely, the inscription places Trump's name beneath the main signage, a distinction the board appears to believe addresses the legal objection that sank the first attempt.
A federal judge had blocked the earlier effort, finding legal problems with that approach. Thursday's vote is the board's answer to that ruling—threading language about renovation and restoration through the formal name rather than a straight substitution.
The Kennedy Center, which opened in 1971 as the national memorial to President John F. Kennedy, sits on federal land and operates as both a performing arts venue and a living tribute to the 35th president. Whether Trump's board has the authority to alter that memorial designation has driven the legal dispute from the start.
Two people with direct knowledge of the board's proceedings confirmed the vote. The board also voted Thursday to partially close the arts center during a renovation period, linking the naming change directly to the construction work the new language references.
Trump moved quickly to reshape the Kennedy Center's leadership after taking office in January 2025, replacing a substantial portion of the board with allies. The new board wasted little time signaling it would act on his preferences for the building, and the first renaming vote followed shortly after the board's reconstitution.
The legal fight over the building's name is not resolved by Thursday's vote—it sets up a fresh round of litigation. Critics argued the first effort violated the statute establishing the Kennedy Center as a memorial, and opponents are expected to challenge this version in court on similar grounds.
The board's construction-linked framing—crediting Trump for restoring and renovating the building—introduces a factual predicate that was absent from the blunter first attempt. Whether that distinction holds up legally remains the central open question.
