White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced today the venerable Kennedy Center will be renamed for President Donald Trump. It will now be known as the Trump-Kennedy Center, she said, "because of the unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year."
Her full statement is this: "Some of the most successful people from all parts of the world, have just voted unanimously to rename the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center, because of the unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building. Not only from the standpoint of its reconstruction, but also financially, and its reputation. Congratulations to President Donald J. Trump, and likewise, congratulations to President Kennedy, because this will be a truly great team long into the future! The building will no doubt attain new levels of success and grandeur."
Trump has paid a lot of attention to the Kennedy Center, known as a cultural gatekeeper of the United States, which did not exactly welcome him with open arms. He and wife Melania were booed by the audience when they attended a showing of Les Miserables there.
When the board rebuffed his attempts to get involved in the Kennedy Center, the president got rid of 18 members of the board and replaced them with his allies, NPR reported at the time.
Trump's pals then elected him chairman by the new board — which includes Vice President JD Vance's wife Usha Vance and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles — on Feb. 12. The president even emceed the center's latest event, where Trump allies Sylvester Stallone, George Strait and others were awarded honors.
Paradise Post noted the name change will not sit well with the Kennedy family, vocal opponents of Trump's agenda and of their own family member in his administration Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
When GOP colleagues of the President introduced legislation in Congress earlier this year to rebrand the Kennedy Center as the Donald J. Trump Center, John F. Kennedy's niece Maria Shriver, who was also married to former Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggar, called it “insane."
"It makes my blood boil. It’s so ridiculous, so petty, so small minded,” she wrote on social media. “Truly, what is this about? It’s always about something. ‘Let’s get rid of the Rose Garden. Let’s rename the Kennedy Center.’ What’s next?”