Trump’s New Plan to Get His Name Back on the Kennedy Center

Donald Trump just won’t let go of his plans for the Kennedy Center.

Less than three months after a federal judge ordered the president’s name stripped from the national arts center, Trump’s handpicked trustees have found a new way to try to put him back on the building.

During a board meeting today, they voted in favor of a resolution that would return the president’s name to the building’s facade.

It would read: The John F.

Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by President Donald Trump I obtained a copy of the resolution, which contains one more edit to the Kennedy Center’s marble edifice.

Once an obscure endowment known as the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reaches $100 million in donations, the resolution would expand the proposed signage’s language to include a third line: Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund .

The vote, which was not included on the agenda distributed before the meeting, will likely drag out a legal fight over Trump’s transformation of the center and deepen an institutional crisis that has repelled audiences, artists, and donors since his takeover.

Participants voted 20–3 to adopt the resolution, one person familiar with today’s proceedings told me on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.

The three “no” votes were from ex officio members of the board, who are not appointed by Trump but serve by dint of their federal office.

Most members of the board are general trustees appointed by Trump. (The board elected Trump chairman in February 2025.) There is also still the matter of the center’s renovation plans.

A main item of the meeting was to resolve a problem that has dogged Trump’s plans for the Kennedy Center for months: how to make a convincing case that the center needs to close.

A federal judge had previously ruled that the board had failed to sufficiently examine the consequences of a full shutdown when it signed off in March on Trump’s surprise plan to close down the center for two years for a glow-up.

Critics, including some ex officio trustees, accuse Trump of using the renovation as a cover for the center’s operational failings under his leadership.

This time, board members reviewed a new trove of materials before—once again—voting for a full closure.