Over the summer, Donald Trump referred to an upcoming event at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and quickly added, “Some people refer to it as the Trump-Kennedy Center, but we’re not prepared to do that quite yet. Maybe in a week or so.”
As it turns out, it took a little longer than that. The Associated Press reported:
President Donald Trump’s handpicked board voted Thursday to rename Washington’s leading performing arts center as the Trump-Kennedy Center, the White House said.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the vote on social media, saying it was because of the ‘unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building. Not only from the standpoint of its reconstruction, but also financially, and its reputation.’
This did not come out of nowhere. On the contrary, the president has spent months talking about this name change, online and in public, suggesting it was only a matter of time before Team Trump tried to formalize the Republican’s wishes.
But before anyone starts ordering new signage for the performing arts center in Washington, D.C., there are some relevant details to keep in mind.
First, Leavitt’s online statement made it sound as if the Kennedy Center’s board members were so moved by Trump’s extraordinary leadership that they felt compelled to rename the institution. What the press secretary neglected to mention is that the White House seized control of the Kennedy Center board of trustees earlier this year, at which point Trump appointed himself chair and started naming loyalists to leadership roles and purging its traditionally bipartisan board.
This change was made for Trump by Trump and his pals.
Second, there’s no reason to assume this is legal. Congress created the name for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and at no point did lawmakers delegate powers to the center’s board to rename the institution unilaterally.
Leavitt’s statement was an opening salvo, but there’s no reason to assume this is a done deal.
Stepping back, it’s worth appreciating the broader pattern. Last month, the White House said Trump wants a football stadium to be named after him. He also likes the idea of renaming Dulles Airport after him, and by some accounts, the president wants the upcoming White House ballroom to be named after him, too.
What’s more, this is the same president who wants his face on both sides of a commemorative legal-tender coin, and whose White House has made official inquiries into adding Trump to Mount Rushmore.
A couple of years into his first term as president, Donald Trump went on a tour of Mount Vernon, where he took the opportunity to offer some mild criticism of George Washington: The nation’s first president, Trump argued, was insufficiently focused on branding when naming his Virginia estate. “If he was smart, he would’ve put his name on it,” the Republican said. “You’ve got to put your name on stuff, or no one remembers you.” (And really, who even remembers George Washington these days?) Six years later, it’s unsettling how often we’re reminded that Trump wasn’t kidding. What the incumbent president doesn’t seem to appreciate is that many people loved Washington, so he never felt the need to slap his own name on stuff — others gladly did it for him. Trump, on the other hand, fears being forgotten, which has led him to make pitiful appeals. I’m not in a position to say with any confidence whether the president will get his wish on any of these fronts, but his efforts are a timely reminder to those who might’ve forgotten: Trump’s obsession with self-aggrandizement and self-glorification is pitiful, and it’s getting worse. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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