{"id":362433,"date":"2025-12-21T20:14:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T20:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/362433\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T20:14:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T20:14:12","slug":"artist-to-pull-kennedy-center-show-over-trump-rename","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/362433\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist to Pull Kennedy Center Show Over Trump Rename"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kennedy Center is already losing performers after Donald Trump<\/a> slapped his name<\/a> on the storied arts institution.<\/p>\n

Kristy Lee, a folk singer scheduled to perform at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts on Jan. 14, is in talks to cancel her appearance, her spokesperson told NOTUS,<\/a> as other artists also move to sever ties with the venue.<\/p>\n

One performer, who spoke to NOTUS on the condition of anonymity, said Trump\u2019s renaming had left a permanent \u201cstain\u201d on the center.<\/p>\n

\"KristyKristy Lee is pulling out of her performance at the Trump-renamed center. Paul Morigi\/WireImage <\/p>\n

Another lamented what the Kennedy Center once represented\u2014for artists and for the country at large. \u201cI feel really badly for performers, not just for performers but for the people who work there,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKennedy Center is supposed to be a memorial, focusing on being nonpartisan. A place where people, it doesn\u2019t matter what party they believe in, should be performing and experiencing the arts together regardless of what their party is. And it has not become that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other artists who reluctantly chose to keep their scheduled performances at the center told NOTUS they are doing so as an act of resistance to the 79-year-old president.<\/p>\n

\"WorkersWorkers on Friday morning adjusted the name of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. Heather Diehl\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cReality show personality and con artist aren\u2019t the type of artist the center showcases,\u201d one artist said. They added that they \u201cdon\u2019t associate the arts, or this building, with Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I guess the real debate up till now is what you boycott it and help ensure it goes down the tubes,\u201d the musician added. \u201cOr do you do the concerts and keep the audiences that love going to the Kennedy Center. And make sure there\u2019s something there after this guy leaves. And it could be restored from however he trashes it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The backlash follows an announcement Thursday from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt that the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts would be tackily renamed to include Trump\u2019s name after a vote by the venue\u2019s board, which is now stacked with MAGA loyalists.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations to President Donald J. Trump, and likewise, congratulations to President Kennedy, because this will be a truly great team long into the future!\u201d she wrote on X. \u201cThe building will no doubt attain new levels of success and grandeur.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The board includes White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles; Attorney General Pam Bondi; second lady Usha Vance; Deputy White House Chief of Staff Dan Scavino; and Allison Lutnick, the wife of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.<\/p>\n

A source told CNN<\/a> that Trump phoned into Thursday\u2019s meeting ahead of the vote.<\/p>\n

A day later, the president\u2019s name was quickly and tackily plastered onto the center\u2019s building, which now reads: \u201cThe Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats and historians, however, have insisted that renaming the venue requires an act of Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Kennedy Center was named by law. To change the name would require a revision of that 1964 law,\u201d Ray Smock, a former House historian, wrote in an email to the Associated Press. \u201cThe Kennedy Center board is not a lawmaking entity. Congress makes laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, many of Kennedy\u2019s relatives<\/a> have expressed their outrage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree years and one month from today, I\u2019m going to grab a pickax and pull those letters off that building, but I\u2019m going to need help holding the ladder,\u201d Kerry Kennedy, 66, wrote on X Friday.<\/p>\n

The lawyer and former president\u2019s niece added: \u201cAre you in? Applying for my carpenter\u2019s card today, so it\u2019ll be a union job!!!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Trump set his sights on the center months ago and has repeatedly suggested it be renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center in public remarks and on social media. At the same time, ticket sales have reportedly plummeted and audiences thinned since Trump\u2019s takeover.<\/p>\n

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kennedy Center is already losing performers after Donald Trump slapped his name on the storied arts institution.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,1072,17153,93401,51879,3,111,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-362433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-donald-j-trump","tag-karoline-leavitt","tag-kennedy-family","tag-kennedy-center","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}