Renaming the Kennedy Center for Donald and Melania Trump would violate the law that created it

WASHINGTON — House Republican proposals to name the Kennedy Center after President Donald Trump and its opera house after first lady Melania Trump would violate the law by which the Kennedy Center was created, four sources familiar with the issue told NBC News.

Republicans last week passed an amendment through committee that would rename the opera house after Melania Trump, saying it was a way to recognize the first lady’s support and commitment to the arts. The measure, sponsored by GOP Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho, is now part of key legislation funding the Interior Department, but would still need to pass through the full House and the Senate to become law.

The next day, Rep. Bob Onder, R-Mo., introduced the “Make Entertainment Great Again Act” to rename the whole center “Donald J. Trump Center for Performing Arts.” The House has not yet taken any action on it.

But three former board members for the Kennedy Center told NBC News that the law creating the center prohibited any of the facilities from being named, other than the Eisenhower Theater, after the president whose administration first authorized its construction in 1958. The project stalled and was revived under President John F. Kennedy, whose family led an effort to get the center built and named in his honor following his assassination. Two months later, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the legislation making it a living memorial to Kennedy.

According to U.S. code, “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.”

Republicans would have to pass legislation to change that. “Legally, they can’t just slap her name on it without congressional action,” said a spokesperson for Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine, the lead Democrat on the Interior Appropriations subcommittee.

“If Republicans can’t pass their budget — which they usually can’t — the Melania Trump renaming provision dies,” the spokesperson continued. “The only real wildcard is whether Trump or his allies ignore the law entirely and try to do it unilaterally. But that would have no legal basis — and would almost certainly trigger a court fight.”

A spokesperson for Simpson said the White House and the first lady’s office were not aware of his amendment before he offered it, nor was Trump-appointed Kennedy Center president Ric Grenell. The first lady’s office did call Simpson’s office to say thank you afterward, the spokesperson said. The White House declined to comment.

Simpson sponsored the amendment because “he understands that the First Lady has always been a very avid supporter of the arts as well. She’s had a long-standing commitment to the arts. … It really did come from his heart.”

As for the amendment potentially dying in the appropriations process, the Simpson spokesperson said they believe it could “definitely” make it through in a short-term funding bill, known as a “continuing resolution,” later in the year.

The first lady is the honorary chair of the center, following tradition. But in a striking departure from their practice during the first Trump term, when they did not attend events there, reacting to widespread criticism of his policies by prominent artists, this year President Trump has shown a great interest in the arts. He has named himself the Kennedy Center chairman and fired the previous bipartisan Board of Trustees, along with its veteran president, Deborah Rutter, and its chairman, David M. Rubenstein. Rubenstein had donated $111 million dollars and was the center’s biggest individual donor, the center said.

Trump replaced Rutter with Grenell, his White House special envoy and former Ambassador to Germany. In a post on social media, Trump wrote that Grenell “shares my Vision for a GOLDEN AGE of American Arts and Culture” and would ensure there was no more “ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA.”

In particular, Trump objected to one drag show, which he found offensive, among the 2,200 events the Kennedy Center typically produces in a year. He also told reporters on Air Force One in February, “We don’t need woke at the Kennedy Center.”

In addition to firing 18 of the 36 board members that had been appointed by President Joe Biden for six-year terms, the Trump administration has ordered different programming. Notably, there are also now four large portraits of the first and second couples in the center’s Hall of Nations, the main entryway to the facility. Until this year, the public spaces included only a bronze bust of President John F. Kennedy.

Trump’s recently enacted domestic spending bill also included more than $250 million to renovate the facility, more than six times the previous $43 million federal subsidy that was earmarked for operations and maintenance, not programming. The center also removed all references to diversity, equity and inclusion from its website.

The Opera House, with more than 2,300 seats, is the center’s second largest theater and the venue for the institution’s signature annual concert for cultural honorees, the Kennedy Center Honors — a formal event and major fundraiser launched in 1978 and attended by all the former first couples, except the Trumps, and taped each December for rebroadcast by CBS. The gala star-studded weekend in the nation’s capital every holiday season has, in the past, always included a Sunday afternoon awards ceremony hosted by the president and first lady at the White House and a celebratory Saturday night dinner at the State Department hosted by the secretary of state.

During his first term, the Trumps did not host the Sunday ceremony nor attend the concert after some of the honorees said they would not attend the White House event in opposition to some of the Trump policies and his controversial comments about the white nationalist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, that year. Past honorees have included a broad spectrum of actors, musicians and other performers.

President Trump and Melania Trump attended a performance of “Les Miserables” in the opera house in June and some members of the audience booed their arrival. Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha were also booed when attending a concert by the National Symphony.

President Kennedy’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg, posted strong criticism of the opera house renaming proposal last week. Caroline Kennedy’s son wrote, “JFK believed the arts made our country great and could be our most effective weapon in the fight for civil rights and against authoritarian governments around the world,” adding, “The Trump administration stands for freedom of oppression, not expression.”