Overview

• The House Appropriations Committee approved on July 22 an amendment to designate the Opera House as the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.”
• The Make Entertainment Great Again Act, introduced July 23 by Rep. Bob Onder, would rename the entire institution the “Donald J. Trump Center for the Performing Arts” but remains in its early legislative stages.
• Legal experts point to a U.S. code provision barring any new memorial designations at the Kennedy Center after December 1983, which would block both renaming proposals without further congressional action.
• Kennedy family members including Maria Shriver and Jack Schlossberg have condemned the efforts, labeling them petty and warning of threats to artistic expression.
• President Trump’s February self-appointment as Kennedy Center chair and overhaul of its board underscored his campaign to eliminate what he described as “woke” programming at the institution.