GOP Votes To Name Kennedy Center Opera House After Melania Trump
In a move that would make even the most seasoned political watchers say “IKYFL,” House Republicans just took the Trump Administration’s war on culture to the stage—literally.
On Tuesday, House Republicans advanced a proposal to rename the Kennedy Center’s Opera House, one of the center’s major theaters, to the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.” An amendment changing the name of the 2,364-seat theater, the second-largest in the arts complex, was approved along party lines by the House Appropriations Committee and will become law if Congress approves the House GOP spending bill that funds the Interior Department, Environmental Protection Agency, and other agencies.
“This is an excellent way to recognize [the first lady’s] support and commitment to promoting the arts,” said Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), chairman of the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee.
Let’s be 100% clear, Melania Trump has no known background in the arts beyond attending the occasional gala—just like we all know she wasn’t scholastically close to Einstein yet used the opportunity to gain entry into the country. But somehow, this administration and their GOP acolytes decided she deserves an entire opera house in her name, paid for in part by $256.7 million in taxpayer money already designated for Kennedy Center renovations.
Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) wasn’t buying the sudden reverence for Mrs. Trump’s artistic “legacy,” calling the move “divisive” and accusing Republicans of sneaking it into the bill with minimal transparency.
“The Republicans have now given the president six times the normal amount of money to run the Kennedy Center, carte blanche over who will be on the board, and how different parts of the Kennedy Center — perhaps the whole Kennedy Center itself — will be named, and this amendment confirms that,” Pingree said in a subcommittee hearing.
It’s not just the renaming that has critics sounding the alarm. This is part of a larger strategy by Trump and his allies to rebrand and reshape American institutions in his image. Remember, one of Trump’s first moves in office was firing much of the Kennedy Center’s board and appointing his own loyalists before installing himself as chairman. Now, with the stroke of a pen and a stacked committee, his wife’s name could adorn one of the most respected cultural institutions in the country—the audacity.
The Republican tax bill signed into law by Trump included $257 million for Kennedy Center repairs, restoration, maintenance work, and security structures; Republicans want to make a 17% cut to the center’s budget for the next fiscal year, to $37 million.
Luckily, the amendment still needs full approval from the House and Senate, and given that spending bills require 60 votes in the Senate, Democrats could very well strip the name change from the final package—if they hold the line.
Still, the symbolism is glaring, and it’s fully apparent that Republicans are not just rewriting policy; they’re trying to rewrite history, one building at a time. The Kennedy Center was established to honor a president who believed in the power of culture to unite and uplift. Rebranding it in the image of Trump’s America feels like an insult to that legacy and a direct attempt to bulldoze any memory of a more collaborative, cultured, and inclusive era.
IKYFL indeed.
The only thing more absurd than naming a historic opera house after a first lady with no notable connection to the arts is the idea that this is about “supporting the arts” at all. It’s not. It’s about power, vanity, and using public dollars to immortalize a family who already hijacked a golden elevator through grifting and now wants the velvet curtain.
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