Joe Kennedy III: The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by

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83. MaddowBlog-One day later, officials scramble to add Trump's name to the Kennedy Center

It’s worth describing what transpired at the Kennedy Center accurately: A group of people vandalized one of the nation’s premier performing arts centers.

It’s worth describing what transpired at the Kennedy Center today accurately:

The president’s operation just vandalized one of the nation’s premier performing arts centers. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-12-19T20:59:47.413Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/one-day-later-officials-scramble-to-add-trumps-name-to-the-kennedy-center

More importantly, Team Trump characterized the name change as a done deal, which it was not. Congress created the name for the Kennedy Center, and at no point did lawmakers delegate powers to the center’s board to rename the institution unilaterally.

The president’s operation, which has never been overly concerned with following laws, didn’t appear to care: By Thursday night, the center’s official website had been changed to include Trump’s name.

By Friday morning, crews were already hard at work. The Washington Post reported:

The Kennedy Center installed President Donald Trump’s name on its exterior Friday morning, a dramatic change to a building established by law as a ‘living memorial’ to a slain president. […]

A blue tarp was stretched across a portion of the building the next morning as a small team on scaffolding started the work. Loud drilling could be heard nearby. Inside the building, large letters spelling ‘Trump’ could be seen on the floor of the entry hall, according to a photograph obtained by The Washington Post.

It’s hard to know where to start with an initiative this ridiculous, but one of the first things that jumped out at me was the speed with which this came together. The president’s operation managed to acquire the materials, arrange the crews, secure the equipment and begin the installation work over the course of roughly half a day.

....Nevertheless, by midday Friday, the crews were gone and the arts center’s façade was changed.

I’m currently outside of the Kennedy Center:

— Phil Lewis (@phillewis.bsky.social) 2025-12-19T19:46:00.030Z

.......At this point, we could talk about the weird double “the.” We could also joke about the fact that this is now apparently a “memorial center” to two people, one of whom is alive.

While we’re at it, we could draw attention to the fact that the fonts don’t exactly match — and given the Republican administration’s interest in type settings, this is tough to overlook — while simultaneously noting the encouraging fact that the placement of Trump’s name will make it easy to take it down in the future without disturbing the original lettering.....

The president and his team have already gone to outlandish lengths to vandalize the White House. They’re now adding additional buildings to their target list.