‘Speechless and enraged’: Trump renames Kennedy Centre in his honour
Washington | Donald Trump has fixed partisan plaques to the portraits of all US presidents, himself included, on his Presidential Walk of Fame at the White House, describing Joe Biden as “sleepy”, Barack Obama as “divisive” and Ronald Reagan as a fan of a young Trump.
The additions, first seen publicly this week, mark Trump’s latest effort to remake the White House in his own image, while flouting the protocols of how presidents treat their predecessors and doubling down on his determination to reshape how US history is told.
“The plaques are eloquently written descriptions of each president and the legacy they left behind,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, describing the installation in the colonnade that runs from the West Wing to the residence. “As a student of history, many were written directly by the president himself.”
Indeed, the Trumpian flourishes include the president’s typical bombastic language and haphazard capitalisation. They also highlight Trump’s fraught relationships with his more recent predecessors.
An introductory plaque tells passersby that the exhibit was “conceived, built, and dedicated by President Donald J. Trump as a tribute to past presidents, good, bad, and somewhere in the middle”.
Besides the Walk of Fame and its new plaques, Trump has adorned the Oval Office in gold and razed the East Wing in preparation for a massive ballroom. Separately, his administration has pushed for an examination of how Smithsonian exhibits present the nation’s history, and he is playing a strong hand in how the federal government will recognise the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026.
Meanwhile, Trump’s handpicked board voted on Thursday (Friday AEDT) to rename Washington’s leading performing arts centre the “Trump Kennedy Centre”, the White House said, an unprecedented change that drew swift condemnation from Kennedy family members and Democratic leaders.
“Some things leave you speechless, and enraged, and in a state of disbelief. At times such as that, it’s better to be quiet. For how long, I can’t say,” said Maria Shriver, a niece of former president John F. Kennedy, on Thursday.
Congress named the centre after Kennedy in 1964, after his assassination, and it has been seen as a memorial to him and the ideals he espoused. But since returning to office in January, Trump has made the centre a touchstone in a broader attack against what he has lambasted as “woke” anti-American culture.
For months, Trump has repeatedly joked about changing the name, including at the Kennedy Centre Honours earlier this month. It follows a year of upheaval at the centre after Trump overhauled the institution in February, sparking a wave of firings and resignations.
Sales of subscription packages are said to have declined since Trump’s takeover of the centre, and several touring productions, including Hamilton, have cancelled planned runs there. Rows of empty seats have been seen in the concert hall during performances by the National Symphony Orchestra.
“I was surprised by it. I was honoured by it,” Trump said of Thursday’s vote. “This was brought up by one of the very distinguished board members and they voted on it.”
Michael Kaiser, a previous president of the Kennedy Centre, said audiences, artists and donors have already come to see the building as politicised since Trump’s takeover. “I’m not sure the naming would change how many people will interact with the organisation,” he said.
Trump takes aim at Biden
On the Presidential Walk of Fame, Trump has taken particular aim at Biden, who is still the only president in the display not to be recognised with a gilded portrait. Instead, Trump chose an autopen, reflecting his mockery of Biden’s age and assertions that Biden was not up to the job.
Biden, who defeated Trump in the 2020 election and dropped out of the 2024 election before their pending rematch, is introduced as “Sleepy Joe” and “by far, the worst President in American History” who “brought our Nation to the brink of destruction.”
Two plaques blast Biden for inflation and his energy and immigration policy, among other things. The text also blames Biden for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and asserts falsely that Biden was elected fraudulently.
Obama is described as “a community organiser, one term Senator from Illinois, and one of the most divisive political figures in American History”. The plaque calls Obama’s signature domestic achievement “the highly ineffective Unaffordable Care Act”.
Bill Clinton, once a friend of Trump’s, gets faint praise for major crime legislation, an overhaul of the social safety net and balanced budgets.
But his plaque notes Clinton secured those achievements with a Republican Congress, the help of the 1990s “tech boom” and “despite the scandals that plagued his Presidency”. His plaque ends with the line: “In 2016, President Clinton’s wife, Hillary, lost the Presidency to President Donald J. Trump!”
With two presidencies, Trump gets two displays. Each is full of praise and superlatives – “the Greatest Economy in the History of the World”. He calls his 2016 Electoral College margin of 304-227 a “landslide.”
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