A new GOP House bill flirts with the idea of stripping John F. Kennedy’s name off his own memorial in Washington, D.C.
Missouri Rep. Bob Onder introduced a bill to rename the historic Kennedy Center, which was built after JFK’s assassination, the “Donald J. Trump Center for Performing Arts”
The news comes days after a proposal was advanced by the House Appropriations Committee to rename the Kennedy Center’s Opera House after first lady Melania Trump
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President Donald Trump’s recent takeover of the Kennedy Center could soon be memorialized after a Republican congressman introduced a bill to rename the iconic institution the “Donald J. Trump Center for Performing Arts.”
Missouri Rep. Bob Onder introduced his bill, dubbed the “Make Entertainment Great Again Act,” on July 23, proposing to rename the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts after the current president.
Onder, 63, said in a statement that Trump, 79, has “entertained audiences for decades,” citing his reality show, The Apprentice, cameos in movies like Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and the fact that he is the only U.S. president to host Saturday Night Live.
“You would be hard pressed to find a more significant cultural icon in the past 40 years than President Trump,” the congressman said. “President Trump’s love and mastery of entertainment has stood the test of time and allowed him to capture Americans’ attention for decades.”
Onder added, “I cannot think of a more ubiquitous symbol of American exceptionalism in the arts, entertainment, and popular culture at large than President Trump.”
Plans for the Kennedy Center, originally set to be named the National Cultural Center, began in the 1950s, however, by the time ground was broken to begin construction in December 1964, it had been rededicated as a “living memorial” for JFK, who was assassinated the year prior.
Just a few days into his second presidential term earlier this year, Trump announced his plans to “make the Kennedy Center great again.” He installed himself as chairman and purged most of its so-called “woke” leadership, installing a new board of conservative supporters in their place.
He also appointed Richard Grenell, a member of his administration, as the institution’s president and interim director.
“I want to make sure it runs properly,” Trump said at the time. “We don’t need woke at the Kennedy Center, and we don’t need — some of the shows were terrible. They were a disgrace that they were even put on.”
When asked by a reporter if he’d ever seen a show at the center, he admitted he hadn’t.
“I get reports they were so bad… I didn’t want to go,” he explained. “There was nothing I wanted to see.”
The president and first lady Melania Trump did end up attending a Kennedy Center performance on June 11, receiving a mix of cheers and boos from the crowd as they arrived for a performance of Les Misérables, which is one of the president’s favorite musicals.
Onder’s bill isn’t the first proposal to put a Trump touch on the Kennedy Center.
On July 22, the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee voted 33-25 to approve an amendment that calls to rename the Kennedy Center Opera House — one of the center’s three main theaters — for Melania Trump.
The amendment is folded into a larger bill that’s intended to allocate funding for the Interior Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and related agencies during the upcoming fiscal year. The bill has not yet been approved by the full House, which is now on an extended summer break.
In keeping with tradition for the sitting first lady, Melania currently serves as an honorary chair for the Kennedy Center; however, she avoided the annual Kennedy Center Honors throughout her husband’s first term.
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Trump’s fixation on the Kennedy Center has drawn plenty of ire from members of the late president’s family.
Last week, Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s only grandson, shared a post on Instagram highlighting a federal law that aims to prevent the renaming of any part of the famous institution.
The statute that Schlossberg shared states that as of Dec. 2, 1983, “no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.”
“Plain reading of the statute makes clear — YOU CAN’T DO THAT,” Schlossberg, 32, wrote in the caption of his post.
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Another Kennedy family member, Maria Shriver, 69, posted on X about Onder’s bill, saying it made her “blood boil.”
“This is insane,” she wrote. “It’s so ridiculous, so petty, so small-minded. Truly, what is this about? It’s always about something. ‘Let’s get rid of the Rose Garden. Let’s rename the Kennedy Center.’ What’s next?”
