New Kennedy Center Guy Cries 'Irreparable Harm' Will Ensue If Trump's Name Is Removed
Like people might actually perform there again?
One of our less-than-esteemed President’s more obnoxious habits, out of many, is his great love of ruining good things by slapping his name on them. It’s never not jarring to see the enormous TRUMP sign on his hotel whenever I’m walking downtown in Chicago, and just the other night I talked to a girl who now has to fly in to Donald J. Trump airport every time she wants to visit her parents, which seems actively unpleasant.
But perhaps the most blasphemous branding thus far is renaming The Kennedy Center as the The Trump-Kennedy Center — or, as the sign now actually reads, “The Donald J. Trump And The Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts” on account of how they just kind of slapped “The Donald J. Trump And” above the sign reading “The Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts.”
It’s hard to defend that move (or that grammar), but Matt Floca, the guy who replaced Ric Grenell as the executive director of the Center, is certainly trying.
On Tuesday, Floca filed a declaration in the US District Court for the District of Columbia asserting that removing Trump’s name from the building would cause “irreparable” harm to the Kennedy Center, owing to all of the fabulous things he has done for it so far. You know, like having to shut it down for repairs because practically no one will perform there anymore. The declaration was issued in response to a lawsuit filed by Democratic Ohio Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, who is also an ex officio board member of the Kennedy Center, arguing that Trump needs the approval of Congress for the name change, which she describes (correctly) as a “personal vanity project.”
“On December 18, 2025,” Floca wrote, “an in-person quorum of the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted to permanently add President Donald J. Trump’s name to the institution, resulting in the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, recognizing his contributions to it both in his capacity as President of the United States and in his capacity as the Chair of the Board of Trustees.”
Note that he says this as though it was some impartial band of arts lovers, and not a group of Trump sycophants appointed to the board after it was purged of practically anyone who might dissent, or as if he didn’t appoint himself the Chair of the Board of Trustees.
“President Trump’s fundraising on behalf of the Center is exemplified by the tens of millions of dollars already raised,” he continued. “Further, the President has committed to raise $150 million on its behalf from private donors over the next two years.”
And what, pray tell, is the point of raising funds for a performing arts center at which no one will perform anything except the world’s longest-running production of Shear Madness? Sure, the National Symphony Orchestra is still there for the time being (until it closes for two years in July), but considering the unprecedented support and success the Washington National Opera has had since leaving the venue and the troubles the NSO has had since Trump took over … they may not be too interested in sticking around.
Floca then explained that if Trump’s name were removed, he just wouldn’t be able to raise any of that money for the Center anymore.
“Should President Trump’s name be removed from the Center, that vital fundraising connection will be severed, causing irreparable harm and fundamentally destabilizing the Center’s development efforts, severely impairing its trust-funded artistic programming, and rendering the continuation of ongoing trust-funded operations financially,” he wrote.
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In her lawsuit, Rep. Beatty made the case that slapping Trump’s name on the building “undermines the Center’s raison d’être, and frustrates its purpose as the only memorial to President Kennedy in Washington, DC.”
“Congress was particularly sensitive that no other names appear on the Center’s exterior walls, other than the signage designating the institution as a memorial for President Kennedy,” she added.
Because that’s literally what it’s supposed to be. It’s meant to honor President Kennedy, not glorify Donald Trump. It might — might! — be one thing if it was called that because Kennedy was the one who established it and initially paid for it or whatever, but it was intended as a memorial. To a president who died. Tragically. That’s like a heretofore unseen level of vulgarity. Who even wants their name on someone else’s memorial? Tackiness aside, I’d honestly be afraid it would trigger a curse.
Thankfully, even if a judge does not find that the name change is illegal without Congress’s say-so, it’s hardly long for this world. I think we can fairly say that as soon as the Democrats are back in charge, they’ll put things back the way they were. Hell, even if they just get a congressional majority, they can pass Bernie Sanders’s Stop Executive Renaming for Vanity and Ego Act (SERVE) Act and keep him from naming every federal building in existence after himself.
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“Should President Trump’s name be removed from the Center, that vital fundraising connection will be severed, causing irreparable harm and fundamentally destabilizing the Center’s development efforts, severely impairing its trust-funded artistic programming, and rendering the continuation of ongoing trust-funded operations financially."
Counterpoint, when the idiot's name is removed, more people will be inclined to respond favorably to vital fundraising efforts. In fact, I'd wager you could raise a shittonne of cash offering the privilege of jackhammering that fucker's stupid addition right off the side of the building.
Fuuuuuuuck you. The Kennedy Center was doing just fine until Trump slapped his name on it. And let's be real: it's just another cash grab for the short-fingered vulgarian.