World-famous Kennedy Centre renamed to honour Trump
The US president says he was ‘surprised’ by the decision from the board, whose members he hand-picked
US President Donald Trump’s hand-picked board voted on Thursday to rename Washington’s leading performing arts centre as the Trump-Kennedy Centre, the White House said, in a move that was quickly denounced as a “disgrace” by the Democratic leader of the House, who is on the board.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the vote on social media, attributing it to the “unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building. Not only from the standpoint of its reconstruction, but also financially, and its reputation.”
Trump, a Republican who is chairman of the board, said at the White House that he was “surprised” and “honoured” by the vote.
“The board is a very distinguished board, most distinguished people in the country and I was surprised by it and I was honoured by it,” he said.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters that Trump’s hand-picked board has no authority to rename the centre in the absence of legislative action, “and we’re going to make that clear”. The New York Democrat is an ex officio member of the board because of his position in Congress.
Trump often refers to the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts, which is named for a Democratic predecessor, as the “Trump Kennedy Centre”.