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Republicans Look to Rename Kennedy Center Opera House After Melania Trump
Republican members of the Appropriations Committee approved an amendment to a spending bill that would rename the venue after the first lady.Listen to this article · 3:23 min Learn more
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President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump at the opening night of “Les Miserables” at the Kennedy Center last month.Credit...Kent Nishimura/Reuters
By Michaela Towfighi and Robin Pogrebin
July 22, 2025
Republican lawmakers moved on Tuesday to rename the Opera House at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington after the first lady, Melania Trump.
The proposal was introduced by Republican members of the House Appropriations Committee as part of a spending bill for the Department of the Interior, environment and related agencies. The legislation would require approval from the full House.
Mr. Trump, who did not attend the annual Kennedy Center Honors awards ceremony during his first term, has shown fervent interest in the performing arts center in his second, naming himself its chairman shortly after returning to office. He purged the Kennedy Center board of Biden appointees, and ousted both the center’s longtime president, Deborah F. Rutter, and its chairman, David M. Rubenstein.
By tradition, the first lady serves as the honorary chair of the performing arts center. Mrs. Trump recently attended a performance of “Les Misérables” at the center with the president.
The amendment, which contained additional measures related to the environment, passed 33-25 in a largely party line vote. Representative Mike Simpson, a Republican from Idaho and chairman of the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, introduced the amendment.
Mr. Simpson said in a statement after the vote that naming the theater after Mrs. Trump “is an excellent way to recognize her appreciation for the arts.”
Representative Chellie Pingree of Maine, the ranking Democrat on the House subcommittee, opposed the amendment.
“It’s just another assault in this whole lineup of the president taking control of the Kennedy Center,” Ms. Pingree said in a phone interview. “It seems outrageous to me. There’s no public consensus around this. It also leads me to wonder, does the president plan to rename the whole Kennedy Center after himself?”
The Opera House is the second-largest theater in the Kennedy Center, according to the center’s website, with more than 2,300 seats. The venue hosts the Kennedy Center Honors, the nation’s highest annual awards recognizing lifetime contributions to the arts.
Performing arts centers typically grant naming rights in response to large gifts, sometimes of $100 million or more, so the new name could limit the center’s fund-raising opportunities. (Another venue at the center is named after Dwight D. Eisenhower.)
Mr. Trump has taken the position that the programming at the Kennedy Center needs to be overhauled. Last February, in a social media post about the center’s programming, he proclaimed: “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA — ONLY THE BEST.”
In June, when Mr. and Mrs. Trump attended the opening night performance of “Les Misérables,” drag queens showed up in protest. Later that month, five Democratic senators hosted a gay pride concert at one of the theaters in the center.
Earlier this month, Mr. Trump signed his domestic policy bill. Its sweeping spending provisions and tax cuts included allocating over $250 million to the Kennedy Center, roughly six times the amount it usually receives from the government.
Michaela Towfighi is a Times arts and culture reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for early career journalists.
Robin Pogrebin, who has been a reporter for The Times for 30 years, covers arts and culture.
