On Thursday, Dec.18, 2025, the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted to rename the institution, adding President Trump’s name to the building’s title. In a unanimous vote, the board renamed the memorial venue “The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” professing that the title honors Trump’s renovations at the center. In February, Trump removed the existing board of trustees and personally selected a new board, which then elected him as chair. Since the building’s opening in 1971, Kennedy’s legacy has been preserved in his memorial, until now, as Trump’s design to add his name was fulfilled.
However, while Trump claimed unanimity during the December vote, others, such as Rep. Joyce Beatty, a member of the board of trustees, stated that each time she attempted to speak on the call to voice her concern and disapproval, she was muted. In fact, on Dec. 22, Rep. Beatty sued President Trump and the board members in order to stop the renaming, pointing to a breach in federal law. She reasons that, due to the Kennedy Center’s status as a national cultural center, named by Congress as a memorial to John F. Kennedy after his assassination, the renaming would require an act of Congress, rather than a board vote.
Many legal experts, including David Super, a law professor at Georgetown Law, assert the illegality of the renaming. In fact, six ex officio members of the Kennedy Center Board, including Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, signed a statement expressing their commitment to holding the administration accountable for violating the law. However, legality aside, many have also expressed concerns that the renaming of the center is disrespectful to Kennedy’s legacy and the purpose of the center.
In 1958, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill to construct the center, the Kennedy Center became the first performing arts building funded by the federal government. President Kennedy and First Lady Jackie Kennedy also helped raise funds for this project, wanting to bring the arts to the public. The Kennedy Center not only embodies the federal government’s direct impact on the arts but also its support of future young artists through its public education programs, including Theater for Young Audiences, Changing Education Through the Arts, and National Symphony Orchestra Performances for Young Audiences. The center has also maintained its tradition of giving a free performance every day at 6 p.m. since 1997.
The Kennedy Center Theater also has a long and celebrated history of performances that have become cemented into American cultural consciousness. For instance, the center helped to produce many iconic musicals, including “Annie,” the U.S. premiere of “Les Misérables” and “Titanic.” It has also hosted classic performances, such as its annual production of “The Nutcracker,” “Caesar and Cleopatra,” “The Lion King,” and “Swan Lake.” The American College Theatre Festival is another program initiated by the Kennedy Center’s founding chairman, Roger L. Stevens, as a national theater program for colleges across the United States. However, upon Trump’s renaming, the organization ended its partnership, stating that recent decisions “do not align with our organization’s values.”
In addition to the festival’s withdrawal from partnership, many other performers have taken to cancelling their shows at the center, including “Hamilton,” the Seattle Children’s Theatre production of “Young Dragon: A Bruce Lee Story,” the Washington National Opera, and the Martha Graham Dance Company. Even Stephen Schwartz, the composer and lyricist for musicals such as “Wicked” and “Pippin,” withdrew from hosting a gala fundraiser at the Kennedy Center. Schwartz stated that although the Kennedy Center was meant to be an apolitical space for artists of different perspectives to come together, the renaming has turned the center into “an ideological statement.”
Issa Rae, creator and lead actress of the HBO show “Insecure,” has also cancelled at the Kennedy Center, stating her decision was due to “what I believe to be an infringement on the values of an institution that has faithfully celebrated artists of all backgrounds through all mediums.” Doug Varone and Dancers, a New York City dance company, joined the slew of show cancellations, ending their statement with, “We hope in three-year’s time, that the Center and its reputation will return to [its] glory.”
Through their cancellations and subsequent statements of resistance and disapproval, these artists seem to protest not only the Trump administration’s move to rename the Kennedy Center but also his broader governing agenda. Since his second inauguration, the Trump administration has caused major turbulence in the United States, from forcefully deploying Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and the National Guard, to dismantling government agencies and gutting the federal work force, placing dozens of new tariffs, pressuring big law firms, cutting funding from universities, and capturing the Venezuelan president, stating plans to take the country’s oil.
As legal boundaries are bulldozed and governmental oversight is bent to the president’s will, the Kennedy Center performers’ defiance does not seem like a disproportionate response in perspective. As supporters and dissenters recognize, the act of renaming a cultural monument to the arts represents more than a breach in federal law or altering a memorial to a former president. It symbolizes an unprecedented brand of heavy-handed politics that will leave its scar on U.S. history.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.