Sen. John Kennedy says no living politician should get a public building named after him, as workers strip President Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center after courts ruled only Congress can rename it.
Workers have started taking Donald Trump’s name off the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., after a federal appeals court denied a last-minute bid to keep it on the facade.
Fox News reported that federal judges had already blocked repeated efforts by the center’s board to add the president’s name, holding that only Congress holds the power to change the name of the performing-arts center.
The board, described as handpicked by Trump, had voted unanimously in December to add his name. Signage went up on the facade on Dec. 19, 2025. Scaffolding appeared near the “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” sign by June 12, 2026, as the legal fight continued.
A federal judge ordered the name removed. The appeals court then turned away the board’s emergency appeal. Crews followed with the physical work of taking the lettering down.
That sequence set up Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
Speaking Sunday, Kennedy said living public officials should not have buildings named after them. He floated a simple rule and tied it to how public money gets used.
Kennedy told host Margaret Brennan:
"I may end up with a sombrero on my head, but I also think we ought to have a rule that no politician can have a building named after him when he’s alive,"
He also drew a line on self-promotion paid for by taxpayers.
Kennedy said:
"The White House sees it differently, but... you can’t spend public money to... promote yourself,"
The sombrero line nodded to AI videos Trump shared last year that mocked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Kennedy kept the focus on the naming rule itself, not the jokes.
The legal core is straightforward. Judges said the Kennedy Center’s name is not the board’s to rewrite. Congress wrote the statute that governs the center. Courts treated that as binding.
Federal judges blocked multiple attempts by the board to lock Trump’s name onto the building. The latest denial cleared the way for workers to reverse the December addition.
That is process, not personality. If the name is going to change, the branch that has the authority has to act.
The Kennedy Center fight did not stand alone. Since returning to the White House last year, Trump has pressed to put his name on other prominent federal sites in and around Washington.
The State Department added Trump’s name to the U.S. Institute of Peace last year. Earlier this month, former institute officials filed a court motion seeking to stop construction crews from putting the president’s name on the outside of that building.
Earlier this year, Trump suggested naming Penn Station in New York and Dulles Airport after himself as part of a funding discussion. He also floated a promenade concept running from the Lincoln Memorial to the Potomac River.
Allies wanted that walkway called the Trump Promenade. Trump left the label open while backing the project.
Trump said:
"They want to call it the Trump Promenade, but I don't know if I want to do that, but it's going to be beautiful,"
Separately, a federal government-funded ad promoting Trump ran on multiple networks, the kind of outlay Kennedy flagged when he said public money should not underwrite personal promotion.
Put the verified pieces in order. A Trump-aligned board voted unanimously to add the president’s name to the Kennedy Center. Workers affixed the signage in December 2025. Judges said the board lacked the power. The appeals court refused a last-ditch stay. Removal work began.
Parallel tracks appeared at the Institute of Peace, in the Penn Station and Dulles suggestions, and in the promenade talk. Kennedy answered with a categorical rule: wait until the politician is no longer living, and do not spend public funds as a personal billboard.
The White House, Kennedy noted, sees the spending point differently. The courts, on the Kennedy Center name, did not see room for the board to act alone.
None of that requires inventing motives. The board voted. The signage went up. The orders came down. The senator stated a bright-line policy on live-politician naming and on taxpayer-funded promotion.
Common-sense limits on naming living politicians after themselves protect the buildings, the budget, and the idea that public honors are not campaign props, Congress can write that rule if it wants the fight settled for good.
