What’s In a Name? Congress Starts Trying to Remake the Kennedy Center

The REACH Campus at the Kennedy Center in February 2021 - Photo by Emily Sexton

Well, now we know. The answer to the question “How long will it take for someone to try to rename the Kennedy Center the Trump Center?” is approximately 5 and a half months, if we date from when President Trump started his takeover of the national center for the performing arts back in February. 

Missouri Rep Bob Onder introduced the “Make Entertainment Great Again” Act on July 23, 2025 which would purportedly change the name of the John F. Kennedy Center to the Performing Arts to the Donald J. Trump Center for the Performing Arts. I say “purportedly” because the full text of the bill is not yet available for public viewing. 

This was on the heels of the House passing an amendment a day earlier to H.R.4754 - Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026 (i.e. the bill that provides the Kennedy Center with its federally appropriated operations and maintenance funding for FY 26), conditioning the Center receiving more than $32 million in necessary and standard funds on changing the name of Kennedy Center’s Opera House to the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House”. 

It’s important to note that renaming these spaces is not just a matter of sticking language in a bill. The Kennedy Center itself is created - and named - by Act of Congress, namely Title 20, Chapter 3, Subchapter V of the U.S. Code (for a deeper examination of this law and the Center generally, jump here). Suffice to say, a lot in that subchapter will need to be changed to essentially eliminate a federal memorial to John F. Kennedy. This isn’t like rebranding the Old Post Office building the Trump Hotel for the term of a lease (or a Presidential term, as it happens). This is effectively saying that there is no longer any desire for the U.S. government to maintain a memorial to our last slain president. It would be akin to deciding that we were going to rename the Lincoln Memorial and replace the statue with one of Donald Trump. 

Even changing the name of the Opera House is more than the stroke of a pen. The Kennedy Center legislation prohibits “the creation of additional memorials”, which has historically been interpreted by the KenCen Powers That Be to prohibit any additional spaces named after individuals (the Eisenhower Theater being the only one in the building not connected to Kennedy, because President Eisenhower signed the initial National Cultural Center act into law in 1958, which was amended to honor President Kennedy after his assassination). While it is conceivable that new Kennedy Center management could interpret the memorial restrictions differently, it is likely that any renaming of the Opera House will also require an amendment to the Kennedy Center’s legislation. This is something that Congress can certainly do - it is within the scope of Congressional authority to amend existing legislation - but it is bigger than just a 29 word amendment in a broad appropriations bill. 

What ultimately happens with either of these name changes, or any future desires to name the Family Theater after grandkids or the Concert Hall after Barron, remains to be seen. As noted above, the MEGA Act is so new it’s not even published publicly as of this writing, let alone out of committee, and the Interior Appropriations bill is back before the full House, so there’s presumably time for the party that supposedly loves government efficiency to realize that this is anything but efficient. Renaming is like rebranding - it costs time and money and represents a waste of already invested funds, given that the Kennedy Center rebranded with a new logo in 2018 and opened an extensive (intended to be) permanent exhibition honoring President Kennedy in 2022. What happens to that work - and the mission of the Kennedy Center as embodied in its current legislation and half a century of practice - is something that Congress will need to consider if these proposals are to be taken seriously.  

This material presented for informational purposes only. Not intended as legal advice.