Trump and Kennedy
memorial, the present
living incumbent's name physically before and above Kennedy's...
Does Mr. Trump not know what "memorial" means?
If it's any comfort he is only screwed to the wall without affecting the venue's legal name, not engraved into the panels!
I looked into the history to see how this happened:
Nov. 1963: John Kennedy was murdered.
Sept 1971: John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was opened. Almost 8 years
after Kennedy's death,
so in memorium.
By law it has to be funded privately and by ticket sales. It is a branch of the Smithsonian Institution.
2025: President Trump fired the entire board, including chairman Deborah Rutter.
Trump appointed new members and "called for a vote to install himself as the chair, which passed overwhelmingly" [1].
December 2025: Kennedy Center's trustees voted to add Trump's name to the center; by law, however, Congress established the name .... as the "John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts". It is unclear what effect the proposed name change will have.[2]
Trump's name was added to the building's signage the day after the board vote and the center's website displayed a new logo with the words "The Trump Kennedy Center".
(Abridged from Wikipedia. The [numbers] are its references in the text.)
There is something odd chronologically here.
Wikipedia does not explain why all the directors were dismissed - perhaps could not find out. It also appears caught out by the speed of events, as it reported the name change as "proposed". So perhaps it was being cautious although having had wind of the change, only for the change to be executed with indecent haste.
Yet it is unreasonable to expect a sign company to make and fit the letters with barely one day's notice. Was it contracted, confidentially, well before the vote; likely without being told the background?
Keeping the addition veiled until some official revelation is not significant. That is normal practice, although the contractors here did not hide their work very well, even from passing dog-walkers.
