# Trump is Made Chair of the Kennedy Center **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [February 12, 2025, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248 "2025-02-12T21:55:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/101 "2025-12-19T00:05:14Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > When will his supporters recoil at his ridiculous levels of narcissism? Rhetorical question? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/102 "2025-12-19T00:07:56Z")
Perhaps. His narcissism is just so blatant; how do they not see it? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/103 "2025-12-19T00:10:06Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > His narcissism is just so blatant; how do they not see it? I think they _see it_ just fine. They just don’t care. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/104 "2025-12-19T00:10:20Z")
The Trump-Lincoln Memorial, the Trump-Johnson Space Center, The City of Trump-Washington, DC. The only one I’ll be happy to see is Trump-Grant’s Tomb. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/105 "2025-12-19T00:13:20Z")
The Donald Trump-Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport? Or perhaps the Donald Trump-John F. Kennedy International Airport? ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/106 "2025-12-19T00:22:15Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Caroline Kennedy should sue to have her father’s name taken off the center. And have the huge JFK bust removed along with all his quotes and large photographs that decorate the center’s interior. ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/107 "2025-12-19T00:30:47Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Awkward in its length and that they left the word memorial in there. I read that as not a memorial to Kennedy, but rather the the arts that used to be performed there… ---
**Author:** ![Quondam\_Mechanic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quondam_mechanic/32/3404_2.png) [@Quondam\_Mechanic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quondam_Mechanic)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/108 "2025-12-19T00:32:19Z")
Actually, the Kennedy Center used to be Lincoln Center, IIRC. Maybe Trump wants to be assassinated like those two were. ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/109 "2025-12-19T00:37:23Z")
I never recall it being called the Lincoln Center. I believe it had more of a generic name and was named after Kennedy after his assassination. It was originally called the National Cultural Center. ---
**Author:** ![Quondam\_Mechanic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quondam_mechanic/32/3404_2.png) [@Quondam\_Mechanic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quondam_Mechanic)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/110 "2025-12-19T00:58:34Z")
No, you’re right. Brain spasm. Lincoln Center is in New York. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/111 "2025-12-19T03:50:01Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Perhaps. His narcissism is just so blatant; how do they not see it? This is the million dollar question. I only have two possible answers. The first is they genuinely don’t see who Trump really is. In which case they are fools. The second is they understand exactly who Trump is and they support him anyway. In which case they’re evil. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/112 "2025-12-19T16:49:18Z")
> [@Ellecram](#): > > I believe it had more of a generic name and was named after Kennedy after his assassination. > > It was originally called the National Cultural Center. Let’s strip it of all names and go back to that. Or just go all in already and sell the naming rights to the highest bidder. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/113 "2025-12-19T17:24:53Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > Let’s strip it of all names and go back to that. Or just go all in already and sell the naming rights to the highest bidder. I’m delighted the current board hasn’t gotten around to [rewriting the website](https://www.kennedy-center.org/our-story/), because it explains exactly why it should stay The Kennedy Center. > In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed bipartisan legislation creating a National Cultural Center in the nation’s capital. In November of 1962, President and Mrs. Kennedy launched a $30 million fundraising campaign for the Center’s construction. Former President Eisenhower and his wife Mamie participated in the event which demonstrated the bipartisan support for a world-class center for the performing arts in D. C. In 1963, President Kennedy signed legislation to extend the fundraising deadline for the Center. > > Two months after President Kennedy’s assassination, by an Act of Congress signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on January 23, 1964, the nation’s National Cultural Center was designated as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy. By this Act, President Kennedy’s devotion to the advancement of the performing arts in the United States was recognized. If anything, it should have been renamed the Eisenhower-Kennedy Center after Eisenhower died in 1969. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/114 "2025-12-19T17:34:07Z")
What will be the ultimate cost of removing/replacing all the Trumpian “improvements”/renamings during this Administration? It’d be swell if private donations could be used to dismantle or repurpose his ballroom and the Rose Garden uber-patio. Removing jeering plaques from Presidential portraits and going back to original names, i.e. the Gulf of Mexico, Defense Department, Kennedy Center etc. will cost some $$ for website reworking, letterheads etc., but nothing like spending for major construction/refurbishing. Possibly the ballroom could be subdivided into working spaces for the kinds of “woke” causes that would infuriate MAGA, and/or a museum dedicated to victims of tyranny. The only thing left named after Trump should be a simple portrait in a White House corridor, adjacent to those of lesser Presidents like James Buchanan and Warren Harding. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/115 "2025-12-19T17:39:33Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Removing jeering plaques from Presidential portraits and going back to original names, i.e. the Gulf of Mexico, Defense Department, Kennedy Center etc. will cost some $$ for website reworking, letterheads etc., but nothing like spending for major construction/refurbishing. It’s still the Department of Defense, even though the current crew is ignoring that fact. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/116 "2025-12-19T18:18:26Z")
The ballroom will not require subdivision, as it will never be completed. Trump had a patio poured in the rose garden. That’s his achievement in building things. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/117 "2025-12-19T18:40:12Z")
That’s what this writer thinks, too: > **[The White House ballroom will never be built](https://www.salon.com/2025/12/19/the-white-house-ballroom-will-never-be-built/)** > > Trump can't focus long enough, even on his $400 million passion project ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/118 "2025-12-19T19:01:55Z")
What’s next, DJT renaming RFK Jr as Robert Trump-Kennedy? ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/119 "2025-12-20T01:28:29Z")
And here we are: [![](https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/0d78d7b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5900x3935+1+0/resize/2720x1814!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F42%2F29%2Fd4a9ae3a92560931fdffb6238efa%2F09a97f4bbd1841e88e79d766ba1d7c57) ](https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/0d78d7b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5900x3935+1+0/resize/2720x1814!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F42%2F29%2Fd4a9ae3a92560931fdffb6238efa%2F09a97f4bbd1841e88e79d766ba1d7c57) ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/120 "2025-12-20T02:03:06Z")
He’s no more than a tagger who happens to have authority thanks to every Republican you know. Please never forget to blame them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248.md?page=7)