The Kennedy Center's board of trustees voted to rename the performing arts center the Trump-Kennedy Center, according to the White House, quoted by the BBC.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on social media that the board voted unanimously to make the change because of the “incredible work President Trump has done over the past year to save the building.”
Leavitt also congratulated the late President John F. Kennedy and wrote, “This will be a truly great team for a long time to come! The building will undoubtedly reach new levels of success and greatness.”
The change is sure to spark controversy, particularly in Washington DC, where the center has been an iconic landmark since its construction and was named after Kennedy.
Speaking in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump said he was “surprised” and “honored” by the decision. Earlier this month, however, Trump appeared to hint at the possibility, joking about a name change at an event for the annual Kennedy Center Honors awards ceremony.
Shortly after taking office, Trump fired all of the center's board members and replaced them with allies, who then voted to appoint Trump as board chairman. His close adviser, Richard Grenell, became chairman of the board.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and second lady Usha Vance, as well as a number of other administration officials and political allies, also serve on the council.
The president also secured about $257 million (£192 million) in congressional funds to cover major renovations and other costs at the stadium that recently hosted the FIFA World Cup draw.
“We saved it,” Trump said of the center Thursday. “He was in very bad shape, physically.”
Although Leavitt and Trump both said the board voted “unanimously” to rename the center, at least one board member disputed that.
“It wasn't unanimous,” said Joyce Beatty, Democratic representative of Ohio and one of the council members. “I was muted during the call and was not allowed to speak or express my opposition to this move.”
Kennedy's nephew Jack Schlossberg, a Trump critic who is currently running for Congress, told X that “the microphones were muted” and the council's vote was “NOT unanimous.”
Other members of Kennedy's family also criticized the reported change.
Joe Kennedy III, a former member of the House of Representatives and great-grandson of the late president, posted on X that “The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president and is named for President Kennedy by federal law.”
Kennedy's niece, Maria Shriver, wrote that it was “absurd” that Trump “believes that adding his name to President Kennedy's is acceptable.”
“It's downright weird. It's obsessive in a weird way,” she wrote.
Work on a national center for the performing arts began in the 1950s, and after the assassination of Kennedy, the 35th president, in 1963, Congress decided to turn it into a memorial dedicated to him.
Some US lawmakers and legal experts have said that because the center was named in a 1964 law, Congress must vote to make the name change official.
Senior Democrats on Capitol Hill who, by law, are ex officio members of the council — including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries — said in a statement that “federal law established the Center as a memorial to President Kennedy and prohibits its name from being changed without action by Congress.”
A similar name change took place at the Defense Department — now the War Department — without congressional approval in September.
Trump's involvement in the center's activities has been criticized by some political opponents, calling it unnecessary political interference by the White House in the arts.
Shortly after taking over the center, Lin Manuel Miranda (composer and lyricist of the award-winning musicals In the Heights and Hamilton, dubbed “the new Gene Kelly”) canceled a planned performance of Hamilton there, and other guest artists canceled their scheduled appearances. Dozens of staff members, some charged with making important artistic decisions, were also fired or resigned.
Earlier this year, the president said he was “98 percent involved” in selecting this year's Kennedy Center honorees, which included action star Sylvester Stallone and members of the rock band KISS.
