The Independent: The historic Kennedy Center could be renamed after Donald Trump sooner rather than later.
Speaking Friday from the Oval Office, Trump signaled that the institution could bear his name in a matter of days.
“Some people refer to it as the ‘Trump Kennedy Center,’ but we’re not prepared to do that quite yet,” Trump said. “Maybe in a week or so.”
2 comments:
This isn’t particularly surprising. Trump has already been on a spree of annexing once independent agencies, such as the Department of Justice and Smithsonian Institution, into his direct domain. The attacks on the Kennedy Center are no different, as he cleared out the once politically diverse board and replaced it with his own loyalists. Additionally, there was a recent amendment to a funding measure that will rename the Opera House after Melania Trump, so the move to rename the entire Kennedy Center in an unsurprising follow up. It is quite fitting, as the Kennedy Center becomes more unrecognizable by the day from what it once was. This also expands to the Kennedy Center Honors as well, which Trump has taken control of and will be the MC for. Overall, the demise of the Kennedy Center is just one small piece of the overall damage the Trump Administration has caused in the seven months it has been in power. Perhaps one day the Kennedy Center will be restored.
I’ve already read an article on the renaming of the Kennedy Center. But it is surprising to hear it could be renamed ‘in a week or so.’ Trump’s reasoning behind the renaming is the ‘work’ he did in his first term. This noncommittal reason doesn’t fit with the original reason for naming the center after JFK. I think its extremely tacky to add a name to a place that was dedicated to a president who was assassinated. It was also named by an act of Congress, while the board chose to add Trump’s name. It is also telling that the name change was proposed after Trump was in office, dismissed the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees and became chairman.
I’ve also read that several members of the Kennedy family don’t agree with the change.
It's frustrating that, as the other commenter Concorde77 said, this “isn’t particularly surprising.” As the New York Times writes: “President Trump loves naming things after himself.”
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