2026-09-16T12:53:55.938Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/16/politics/kennedy-center-name-change-trump
去年12月，唐纳德·特朗普总统曾坦言自己“感到意外”——他亲自任命的约翰·F·肯尼迪表演艺术中心董事会突然投票决定，将他的名字与肯尼迪的名字并列刻在建筑上。
十个月后，特朗普为达成这一目标而将该机构作为人质的做法，集中体现了他对自身遗产日益古怪的执念，且这一执念可能会在短期内产生政治影响。
或许当下没有任何其他事件能比这件事更清楚地表明，特朗普是多么沉迷于自我美化，哪怕这可能会让他所在的共和党在即将到来的中期选举中付出代价。
整件事的发展过程令人眼花缭乱。
“董事会是一个非常杰出的团队，汇聚了全国最优秀的人才，”特朗普当时说道，随后他补充道：“我对此感到意外，也深感荣幸。”
当然，他没有明说的是，特朗普早已将董事会成员全部替换为政治盟友。该董事会很快选举他担任主席，之后他多次开玩笑称要将该中心称为“特朗普肯尼迪中心”。巧合的是，特朗普还亲自致电参与了这项决定的投票会议。
这一举动十分反常，因为联邦法律显然对此予以禁止。果然，到5月下旬，美国地区法官克里斯托弗·库珀裁定，董事会无权做出这一决定。他同时阻止了政府关闭该建筑进行翻新的计划。
特朗普很快便暗示他将对此事撒手不管，称自己的翻新计划遭到了阻挠。他表示会将肯尼迪中心交给国会，让议员们处理其财务和其他问题。
但随后事态变得愈发怪异。
在一份试图拖延移除特朗普姓名期限的法庭文件中，政府辩称，出于资金原因，必须将他的名字保留在建筑上。（尽管有报道称，在试图更名后，该中心的财务状况急剧下滑。）
“如果建筑上没有‘特朗普’这个名字，我们的筹款活动不仅会全面停滞，所有已筹集或承诺的资金都将必须返还、退款或终止，”文件中写道。
当这一诉求失败后，政府遵守了移除姓名的命令。但他们选择在夜幕掩护下行动，事先搭建了脚手架并挂上防水布，遮挡住众人视线，以免这一尴尬时刻被拍到。之后他们并未拆除脚手架和防水布，显然是为了不让人对比更名前后的样子。
到了8月，董事会提出了一项新的方案，试图为特朗普冠名——这无疑凸显了这件事在他心中的优先级有多高。
他们不会为整个中心更名，而是会在肯尼迪中心的标牌下方刻字，说明该建筑群“由唐纳德·J·特朗普总统修复翻新”。董事会还提议将周边广场以特朗普的名字命名。
随后政府在另一份法庭文件中辩称，如果不认可特朗普，该建筑将“持续陷入财务和结构的死亡螺旋”。
“因此，特朗普政府和唐纳德·J·特朗普总统理应获得应有的尊重和认可，”文件中说道。
库珀如今再次驳回了这一主张——而在此之前，政府甚至提出了更为孤注一掷的论点。
在周二会议前分发的文件中，董事会原定审议两项决议。其中一项直言不讳地宣称，不仅特朗普和他的名字是拯救肯尼迪中心的必要条件，而且只有冠名才能说服特朗普协助推进翻新工程。
“董事会认为，如果不给予此类适当认可，特朗普总统不太可能对主楼翻新提供根本性监督，也不会带领该中心实现财政救援，”其中一份决议草案写道。
毫无疑问，在周二法官驳回政府诉求后，特朗普直接公开表态。他直白地表示，只有获得他迫切想要的认可，他才会提供帮助。
特朗普在社交媒体上称，翻新工程“在华盛顿特区巡回法院就董事会获批的更名请求作出裁决之前，无法启动”。
“如果裁决结果不利——本不应如此——且未被美国最高法院推翻，那么肯尼迪中心的重建和翻新工作将无法开展，”特朗普说道。
据美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）报道，特朗普周二还致电董事会会议，斥责一名在该委员会任职的民主党女议员。
这位来自俄亥俄州的众议员乔伊斯·比蒂周二晚间告诉CNN记者凯特兰·柯林斯，特朗普“威胁要因肯尼迪中心的状况让我承担有人死亡的责任”。
如今情况已截然不同。特朗普曾声称自己对董事会投票将他的名字刻在建筑上一事感到意外。如今，他明确将肯尼迪中心作为人质，要求恢复建筑上的他的名字。
显而易见，这是特朗普的一项核心要务，他几乎会不择手段地将自己的名字刻在肯尼迪中心上——哪怕这看起来愈发孤注一掷，哪怕即便侥幸通过法律审核，这一举措也很可能只是暂时的。可以肯定的是，下一任民主党总统定会设法将其移除。
更值得注意的是，这显然是一个政治包袱。皮尤研究中心4月的一项民调显示，仅有9%的美国人认为在特朗普仍在任期间以他的名字命名政府建筑是可以接受的。最近的一项CNN民调显示，近六成美国人认为特朗普试图更改肯尼迪中心等机构名称的行为“做得太过火”，支持与反对比例接近2:1。
特朗普早已明确表示，比起选民最关心的经济负担问题，他更关注这些所谓的遗产项目。
肯尼迪中心的事态演变成一场愈发透明的闹剧，一切只为让特朗普的名字出现在建筑上，这无疑凸显了特朗普的政治优先级所在——哪怕曾有人对此抱有疑虑。
The Kennedy Center saga shows how consumed Trump is with his own glorification
2026-09-16T12:53:55.938Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/16/politics/kennedy-center-name-change-trump
Back in December, President Donald Trump professed to be “surprised” that his hand-picked board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts had suddenly voted to slap his name alongside Kennedy’s on the building.
Ten months later, Trump’s effort to hold the institution hostage to obtain that goal epitomizes an increasingly bizarre fixation on his own legacy – and one with potential near-term political consequences.
Perhaps better than anything else right now, it demonstrates how consumed Trump is with his own personal glorification, even at the possible expense of his Republican Party in the upcoming midterm elections.
The progression from December has been a dizzying one.
“The board is a very distinguished board, most distinguished people in the country,” Trump said back then, before adding: “And I was surprised by it. I was honored by it.”
Left unsaid, of course, was the fact that Trump had replaced the board with a bunch of political allies. That board quickly elected him chair, then he repeatedly joked about calling it the “Trump Kennedy Center.” Trump also happened to call into the meeting where this decision was made.
The move was strange because federal law pretty clearly prohibited it. And sure enough, by late May, US District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the board lacked the authority to do so. He also blocked the administration from closing the building for renovations.
Trump soon signaled he would wash his hands of the matter, suggesting he was being blocked from revitalizing it. He indicated he would turn the Kennedy Center over to Congress, and let lawmakers deal with its financial and other problems.
But then things got weird.
In a court filing seeking to delay the deadline for removing Trump’s name, the administration argued that it needed his name to be on the building for money reasons. (This in spite of the fact that its finances reportedly plummeted in the wake of the name-change attempt.)
“Without the name, ‘Trump’ on the Building, our fundraising will not only come to a halt, but any and all monies raised or committed would be obligated to be returned, refunded, or terminated,” it said.
When that failed, the administration complied with the removal. But it waited to do so under the cover of night, after it had constructed scaffolding and hung tarp to obscure everyone’s view of the embarrassing moment. Then it left the scaffolding and tarp up, apparently so nobody could compare the before and after.
By August, the board came up with a new plan to affix Trump’s name – in case there was any doubt about how big a priority this was.
Rather than rename the entire center, language would be inscribed below the Kennedy Center’s sign saying the complex was, “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.” The board also moved to name the surrounding plaza in Trump’s honor.
Then it argued in another court filing that, without recognizing Trump, the building would “continue to be in a financial and structural death spiral.”
“The Trump Administration, and President Donald J. Trump, should, therefore, be given the respect and dignity of acknowledgement,” it said.
Cooper has now again rejected this idea – but not before the administration floated even more desperate arguments.
In documents distributed ahead of a meeting on Tuesday, the board was scheduled to consider a pair of resolutions. One of them flatly claimed that not only were Trump and his name needed to save the Kennedy Center, but that the name was necessary to convince Trump to help with renovations.
“The Board understands that without such appropriate recognition it is unlikely that President Trump will provide the fundamental oversight of the renovation of the main building and lead the fiscal rescue of the Center,” said one of the draft resolutions.
And in case there was any doubt, after the judge ruled against the administration on Tuesday, Trump just came out and said it. He said pretty flatly that he would only help if he got the recognition he clearly yearned for.
Trump said on social media that renovations “cannot begin until such time as the DC Circuit rules on the Board’s approved name.”
“If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the US Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place,” Trump said.
Trump also called into a meeting of the board on Tuesday to berate a Democratic congresswoman who serves on the panel, CNN reported.
That congresswoman, Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday night that Trump “wanted to blame me if someone died” because of the state of the Kennedy Center.
We’ve come a long way. Trump once claimed he was surprised that the board voted to put his name on the building. Now, he’s explicitly holding the Kennedy Center hostage until it goes back on the building.
It’s pretty evident that this is a massive priority of Trump’s, and he’ll do virtually anything to get his name affixed to the Kennedy Center – even if it looks increasingly desperate and even if it’s likely destined to be a rather temporary move if it did somehow pass legal muster. Surely, the next Democratic president would seek to have it taken down.
And just to underscore, this is an apparent political albatross. A Pew Research Center poll in April found just 9% of Americans said it was acceptable to name government buildings after Trump while he is still in office. A recent CNN poll showed Americans said by a nearly 2-to-1 margin that Trump’s efforts to change institutions like the Kennedy Center went “too far.”
Trump has made it abundantly clear that he’s focused on these perceived legacy items much more so than voters’ top priority, affordability.
And seeing the Kennedy Center situation devolve into an increasingly transparent debacle that’s all about Trump getting his name on it drives home where Trump’s political priorities are – in case there was any doubt.