Republicans Look to Rename Kennedy Center Opera House After Melania Trump

[choie]

I'm going to burst a blood vessel.

Republican lawmakers moved on Tuesday to rename the Opera House at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington after the first lady, Melania Trump.

The proposal was introduced by Republican members of the House Appropriations Committee as part of a spending bill for the Department of the Interior, environment and related agencies. The legislation would require approval from the full House.

Mr. Trump, who did not attend the annual Kennedy Center Honors awards ceremony during his first term, has shown fervent interest in the performing arts center in his second, naming himself its chairman shortly after returning to office. He purged the Kennedy Center board of Biden appointees, and ousted both the center’s longtime president, Deborah F. Rutter, and its chairman, David M. Rubenstein.

More: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/arts/kennedy-center-opera-melania-trump.html

[BootinUp]

1. Who cares. Nt

[choie]

5. Those of us who give a shit about preserving the arts.

That's who.

[BootinUp]

13. Your reasoning is not making sense. Nt

[choie]

16. Maybe not to you.

[Norbert]

2. What next, weekly female mud wrestling?

[orangecrush]

3. Will they show her pornos there?

[C_U_L8R]

4. Have they not seen Citizen Kane?

Do they have no sense of irony at all? What buffoons.

[choie]

18. Heh.

Thats a great analogy.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. Democrats say GOP 'snuck in' renaming Kennedy Center Opera House for Melania Trump

An amendment changing the name was approved along party lines.

Just when you thought shit couldn’t get any stupider abcnews.go.com/Politics/rep... Democrats say GOP 'snuck in' renaming Kennedy Center Opera House for Melania Trump - ABC News

— Lobstah Grl слава україні 🇺🇦 (@lobstahluvah.bsky.social) 2025-07-22T20:23:06.802Z

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/republicans-rename-kennedy-center-opera-house-melania-trump/story

House Republicans have advanced a proposal to rename the Kennedy Center's Opera House, one of the center's major theaters, 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 on Tuesday, and would 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.

It's the latest move by Republicans and the White House to turn the traditionally bipartisan Kennedy Center in a more Trumpian direction, after President Donald Trump fired board members appointed by former President Joe Biden and replaced them with his own supporters.

[choie]

10. Well, Democratic rep Marie Gluesenkampf Perez voted with the republicans.

This is one of the reason we can't have nice things. Democrats voting with republicans.

[LakeVermilion]

11. Well, that's it...

I'm done with opera! (sarcasm)

(As if MAGA's will ever discover the MTOH.)

[wcmagumba]

7. Please find a way to block this...If not, it will have to be renamed again down the road.

Another waste of time and money...

[choie]

8. And one Democrat, Marie Gluesenkampf Perez

voted with the republicans. Fucking fool.

[LakeVermilion]

12. Perhaps she has been waiting for a lifetime,

to "diss" the Kennedy name.

[Ocelot II]

9. A new forum for pole dancing and strip-teases?

Now that Malaria has new kidneys, maybe she could perform herself. If it's still to be an opera house, maybe a nude Salome? Or Lulu? Probably not Don Giovanni, though.

[choie]

17. Salome

she can do the dance of the seven veils,, like she did in her younger years.

[MuseRider]

21. Salome would be good.

I dearly love that score, well everything about a good production the music just carries it but, yes, it would work for this situation.

[Norrrm]

14. Kissing Lord Trump's ass.

[mercuryblues]

15. What are they going to call it?

Flotus' Bump and Grind?

Twin peaks and jiggly cheeks?

Guest starring Melley Candy

[Mz Pip]

19. Another shiny object Trump is distracting Dems with

He manages to keep us in a state of constant outrage. And we take the bait every time. We’ll be outraged, he’ll do it anyway and then move onto something else that will keep us outraged.

In 2029 the new President and change it back.

[Kid Berwyn]

20. Melania who paved over the Jacqueline Kennedy Rose Garden?

She sounds nice.



The first couple use a newborn, who's just been orphaned when his parents were gunned down by a white supremacist in an El Paso, Texas, Walmart, for a photo op.

[Stinky The Clown]

22. Line the lobby with her nude pics from her "genius visa" days

And put this one right at the front door . . . . . from left to right: convicted felon and adjudicated sexual abuser, a soft core porno model and alleged paid escort, a dead pedophile, child rapist, and sex trafficker, and lastly a sex procurer, recruiter and child sex abuser.

That should make our country proud.

google "Melania Knauss nude", for much more

[LetMyPeopleVote]

23. The new name for this facility

[LetMyPeopleVote]

24. Renaming the Kennedy Center for Donald and Melania Trump would violate the law that created it

The Kennedy Center can’t include new memorials or plaques — for donors or presidents — under U.S. law. Republicans would need to change that to rename it for the Trumps.

Renaming the Kennedy Center for Donald and Melania Trump would violate the law that created it

www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...

— Amanda Terkel (@aterkel.bsky.social) 2025-07-29T13:21:42.628Z

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/renaming-kennedy-center-donald-melania-trump-violate-law-created-rcna221505

Three former board members for the Kennedy Center told NBC News that the law creating the center prohibited any of the facilities from being renamed, other than the Eisenhower Theater, after the president whose administration first authorized its construction in 1958. The project stalled and was revived under President John F. Kennedy, whose family led an effort to get the center built and named in his honor following his assassination. Two months later, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the legislation making it a living memorial to Kennedy.

According to U.S. code, “After December 2, 1983, no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.”

Republicans would have to pass legislation to change that. “Legally, they can’t just slap her name on it without congressional action,” said a spokesperson for Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine, the lead Democrat on the Appropriations subcommittee on the interior.

“If Republicans can’t pass their budget — which they usually can’t — the Melania Trump renaming provision dies,” the spokesperson continued. “The only real wildcard is whether Trump or his allies ignore the law entirely and try to do it unilaterally. But that would have no legal basis — and would almost certainly trigger a court fight.”.....

President Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg posted strong criticism of the opera house’s renaming proposal last week. Schlossberg, Caroline Kennedy’s son, wrote, “JFK believed the arts made our country great and could be our most effective weapon in the fight for civil rights and against authoritarian governments around the world,” adding, “The Trump administration stands for freedom of oppression, not expression.”

[LetMyPeopleVote]

25. Maddow Blog-Make Entertainment Great Again Act: Republican wants to rename Kennedy Center for Trump

One historian recently described the Republican effort to name a bunch of stuff after the incumbent president as “pretty crazy.”

Make Entertainment Great Again Act: Republican wants to rename Kennedy Center for Trump - MSNBC

apple.news/AIwS_PdL2SIu...

— (@oc88.bsky.social) 2025-07-29T16:34:18.932Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/make-entertainment-great-act-republican-wants-rename-kennedy-center-tr-rcna221747

Last week, Republican Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho tucked a provision into a spending bill that would name the Kennedy Center’s opera house after first lady Melania Trump. NBC News reported on a related idea about her husband.

The next day, Rep. Bob Onder, R-Mo., introduced the ‘Make Entertainment Great Again Act’ to rename the whole center the ‘Donald J. Trump Center for Performing Arts.’ The House has not yet taken any action on it.

...But what I continue to care about is the broader partisan pattern: GOP officials have invested a truly bizarre amount of time and energy into pushing sycophantic legislation designed to flatter the incumbent president. The list includes:

a bill to create a $250 bill that would feature Trump’s face;

a similar bill that would put Trump’s face on $100 bills;

a bill to make Trump’s birthday a federal holiday;

a bill to carve Trump’s face into Mount Rushmore;

a bill to rename Washington Dulles International Airport after Trump;

a bill to name the Washington, D.C., subway system after Trump and his MAGA slogan;

and now a bill name the Kennedy Center after Trump.

What’s more, this list doesn’t include related efforts from the president’s sycophantic allies, including measures to nominate Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize and to allow Trump to seek a third term.....

As The New York Times recently summarized, “A competition of sorts has broken out for whom the Republican base will see as the most pro-Trump member.” From the article:

The rush of flattering legislation, some of which even the lawmakers concede is unlikely to pass, stands apart from merely carrying out Mr. Trump’s agenda. ... ‘It shows the power that Donald Trump has within the Republican Party these days, and that Republican members want to stay on his good side,’ said Sean M. Theriault, government professor at the University of Texas at Austin. ‘A lot of these people are in really safe districts, but they’re also thinking about what their next step is. And so if they have designs on being in the Senate or running for governor or even a position in the administration, then there’s no better way to get on his good side than to do these over-the-top moves toward him.’

.....I’m reminded anew of something Filipe Campante, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, said about these efforts: “The reason why this is bad is the very fact that it’s transparently ridiculous: It shows how this is becoming a Kim Jong-Un-style cult of personality, where the sycophants try to outdo one another in their groveling to get the attention of Dear Leader.”

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

26. Melania who??

[RedWhiteBlueIsRacist]

27. Can't they just find a brothel somewhere to name in her honor?

[Cloudhopper]

28. Or they could just call it 'Melania's Best Little Pornhouse in DC'