The things we learn due to President Trump’s ego.
Congress created the John F. Kennedy Center in 1964 as a “living memorial” to President Kennedy after his assassination in 1963. It was authorized in 1958 as the National Cultural Center. As a public-private partnership, it is a “semi-independent non-profit organization.”
Did you know that? I didn’t until Trump’s antics on Thursday.
The ink was hardly dry on the board of trustees vote when the building was defaced by the addition of Trump’s name on the building. Above Kennedy’s.
How long does it take to get custom letters made for a building in DC? Certainly more than 24 hours. So to add insult to injury, someone on the trustees board had already decided on the name change and had the staff place an order for the letters.
What do we know about that vote?
Apparently the name change was not on the agenda. Trustees attending virtually were muted and not allowed to vote, so the claim of “unanimity” is suspect.
In a joint statement Beatty and several other ex-officio board members said the renaming effort was conducted improperly and without legal authority. The statement was signed by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia and Rep. Rick Larsen of Washington.
Although Congress created a national cultural center in the Eisenhower era, it did so without funding. Along with naming the building for Kennedy, the 1964 Congress provided money to build it. It officially opened on September 8, 1971; it was the premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy.
The law is damn clear. Congress named the Kennedy Center and only Congress can rename it or add another memorial.
The Board shall transmit to Congress a detailed report of any memorial which it proposes to provide within the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts under authority of paragraph (5) of section 4 oif this Act, and no such memorial shall be provided until the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution shall have approved such memorial.”;
Just as we don’t put living and current president’s faces on coins, neither do we rename landmarks for them.
For nearly 250 years the United States has not “honored” sitting political leaders by naming buildings or cultural institutions for them. Presidents have never appointed a board to an institution and then pressured that board to rename the institution for the president. Presidents have not signed bills, or issued executive orders, to name things after themselves. Dictators, emperors, führers, czars, kings, and “dear leaders” do such things, because it makes them feel good, powerful, and strokes their fragile egos. Presidents of a republic do not act in this way.
Trump’s behavior is the latest reflection of himself as an authoritarian with the power to put his name on things willy nilly: the East Wing; a commemorative coin for 2026; The US Institute for Peace; the Trump Gold Card (immigration); Trump Accounts for children born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028; and National Park Passes (bear his image).
His refrain: “mine, mine, mine,” like a three-year old toddler.
Members of the other two branches of government are sitting on their hands on the sidelines rather than enforcing boundaries.
Call or write your Senators and Representative. Demand that they act like the countervailing power the Founders intended.
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Header image: Wikimedia Commons
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com