by When House Republicans proposed an amendment to a funding package last week that would rename the Kennedy Center’s Opera House the First Lady Melania Trump Opera House, they sparked a debate.
Does anyone have the authority to change the name of the entire John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts or just a portion of it?
The center’s namesake’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg, believes that no one can.
He shared a screenshot of Grok, the AI chatbot that was connected with X, on Instagram. It said: No, Trump cannot rename the Opera House at the Kennedy Center after Melania Trump on his own. Such a proposal was adopted by a Republican-led House panel in a spending measure, but Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s grandson, claims it is against federal law (Public Law 88-260), which prohibits the Center from having any more memorials. It might be challenged in court if it is passed.
According to the federal law he cites, the Board must ensure that no more memorials or plaques resembling memorials are placed in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ public spaces after December 2, 1983.
However, the board of trustees is not the same as the House Republicans on the Appropriations Committee. According to Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), whose amendment to a budget bill passed by a vote of 33-25 last Tuesday and is expected to eventually reach the House floor, this is a great opportunity to honor [Melania Trump’s] support and dedication to advancing the arts.
The Kennedy Center as a whole will be renamed after President Donald Trump, according to a separate bill that was submitted by another Republican member of the House on Wednesday.
Can they, then?
David Super, a law professor at Georgetown, says the important thing is who is renaming. According to the aforementioned statute, the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees, which Trump chairs and which handles the majority of the organization’s important decisions, is not authorized to rename any area of the center or establish any new memorials. (A request for comment from the Kennedy Center was not answered.)
According to the law as it stands, there isn’t much doubt that the Kennedy Center board cannot rename the Opera House after Melania Trump or pretty much anybody else and would want approval from Congress before doing so, Super stated. I can’t really think of any gaps in the statute that would permit this to occur because it is so clear-cut. That must be the reason they are promoting legislation instead of writing to the board or whatever.
However, the board isn’t attempting to make any changes. Republicans in the House are.
“They can do it if they can pass that legislation,” Super stated.
Naturally, Super stated that 60 votes would be required in the US Senate, and I would be surprised if seven Democratic senators could support naming an opera house after the spouse of a person who has been slashing funding for the arts. This could be one of the reasons the suggested modification is included in a spending bill amendment.
The second suggestion comes next.
Since Trump took over the Kennedy Center in February, a semiserious joke has been going around among the staff: How long will it take for the Kennedy Center to become the Trump Center?
Starting small with just an opera house isn’t enough for at least one House Republican.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts would become the Donald J. Trump Center for the Performing Arts under a bill submitted last week by Rep. Bob Onder (R-Missouri), which he refers to as the Make Entertainment Great Again Act or Mega Act.
President Trump is, in my opinion, the most pervasive representation of American exceptionalism in the entertainment industry, the arts, and popular culture in general. Onder wrote on X. Trump recently hosted a fundraiser for the Kennedy Center during a performance of Les Misérables there, despite not seeing a show there during his first tenure as president. Richard Grenell, a confidant, has been appointed president and given the responsibility of reorganizing the organization.
This is crazy. Kennedy’s niece Maria Shriver posted about the proposition on X. It enrages me. It’s so small-minded, so petty, and so absurd. What is this really about? There’s always something at stake. The Rose Garden should be removed. The Kennedy Center should be renamed. What comes next?
Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), a member of the House Appropriations Committee who voted against the Opera House proposal, told The Washington Post that it’s more than just a theater in Washington. It was constructed as a memorial to JFK, who had a deep appreciation for the arts. She said changing it would be like renaming the Lincoln Memorial or the Washington Monument.
Whether it’s legal or not, Super thinks it’s strange that a portion of the Kennedy Center would be named after a live person.
According to him, it is highly uncommon in America to name anything related to a public institution after a live individual. It’s not how we do things here, but it’s common in North Korea, Russia, and a few other nations.
Pingree also questions whether Trump will just do it, legal or not.
The president, who doesn’t appear to abide by the law or custom, might simply put up a sign and rename the Opera House, she remarked.
