President Donald Trump's name is being affixed to the outside of the Kennedy Center just one day after its board—which he stacked with his allies—voted to add Dear Leader’s name to the cultural center. And they’re doing it in violation of federal law.
Tarps are installed in front of the sign on the Kennedy Center on Dec. 19.
Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey said in a post on X that if work was indeed taking place to “physically change the sign on the Kennedy Center,” then it “needs to stop as it’s illegal to change without Congress.”
Photos taken of the building on Friday clearly show Trump’s name being added.
That’s proof positive that the board’s so-called vote was basically fixed and that Trump’s lackeys planned to put his name on the building, no matter what. The vote was merely a way for them to make their illegal move appear legitimate.
Trump himself played dumb on Thursday, saying he had no idea the name change was happening but that it is a huge honor—even though he had mused about the name change earlier this month.
Of course, this is far from the first time the Trump administration has ignored the law to do whatever it wants.
Trump infamously had the White House’s East Wing bulldozed to make way for his hideously ostentatious $400 million ballroom—which will dwarf the size of the White House itself.
Trump also unilaterally tried to rename the Gulf of Mexico and the Department of Defense. However, the name change for the Department of Defense is not official, since it would take an act of Congress to do that. And he can’t force other countries to adopt his “Gulf of America” rebrand.
Meanwhile, Trump’s name was also affixed to the U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent organization that Trump effectively—and illegally—shuttered.
And his administration is illegally trying to mint $1 coins bearing Trump's face, even though federal law states that a living individual cannot appear on American currency.
At the end of the day, though, Trump is an egomaniac who—rather than focus on making the economy work better for everyday people—is more concerned with plastering his face and name all over the country like a dictator.
“What's next, the Trump-Washington monument? The Trump-Lincoln Memorial? Every building in D.C.? Are there any self-respecting Republicans willing to stand up to their Dear Leader? Completely insane,” Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland wrote in a post on X.
