When a president can silence dissent and bolt his name onto a national memorial, integrity is already gone—which is why The Kennedy Center Honors and The Kennedy Center must be boycotted.

Let’s be blunt: the Kennedy Center, America’s living memorial to a fallen president, has just been hijacked—no, desecrated—by convicted felon Donald J. Trump. And yes, they actually installed a new sign on the building’s facade reading The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. Let that sink in. A presidential ego has been bolted onto the home of American performing arts, in clear violation of both federal law and common decency.

Here’s the ugly truth: Trump didn’t merely “suggest” this. He didn’t “tease” it in an idle tweet. He weaponized his hand-picked board, squeezed any semblance of due process, and affixed his name to a national memorial without congressional approval. That’s not administration “enthusiasm”—that’s a hostile takeover of history, culture, and integrity itself. Former Rep. Joseph Kennedy III put it succinctly: “It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says.” Yet here we are, watching history twisted into a monument to narcissism.

NBC reports that Democratic board members were muted—literally—when they tried to object. Joyce Beatty, ex-officio member, attempted to raise concerns during a board meeting only to be silenced repeatedly, her voice erased in real time. Imagine that: a body that is supposed to steward an American cultural institution actively silences members to advance one man’s vanity project. If this were a film, it would be called The Audacity of Ego, and even Hollywood would call it implausible.

Legal experts and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have confirmed what common sense already tells us: Trump’s name belongs nowhere on this building. The statutes establishing The Kennedy Center explicitly memorialize John F. Kennedy; any name change requires an act of Congress. That’s not opinion—that’s law. Yet Trump’s board apparently felt that a private vote—conducted with at least one silenced dissenting member—was sufficient. It wasn’t just a breach of protocol; it was a declaration that rules, history, and decency are optional if you’re sitting in the Oval Office.

To those who think this is “just politics” or a harmless rebranding: consider the precedent. The Kennedy Center is supposed to stand for the arts, for national memory, and for American ideals. By affixing a sign to glorify himself, Trump is telling every artist, visitor, and student who walks through those doors that merit, talent, and cultural contribution are secondary to political loyalty and ego. This isn’t leadership; it’s vandalism in slow motion.

Why The Kennedy Center Honors Must Be Boycotted

So here’s what must happen: Americans must respond with consequences. I will be among those boycotting The Kennedy Center and The Kennedy Center Honors—the annual celebration that has long been a crown jewel of American culture—until a Democratic president is elected and restores integrity to the institution. Every ticket not purchased, every televised broadcast ignored, every public mention withheld sends a single message: we will not normalize this. The Kennedy Center cannot be allowed to serve as a stage for vanity politics. What Trump has done to the Kennedy Center—a national memorial he had no legal authority to rename—is a grotesque corruption of both law and taste.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t partisan sniping. This is about defending the principle that public institutions exist for the public good—not as billboards for a single individual. Until Congress intervenes to restore the building to its rightful name, until board members are empowered to act without fear of censorship or reprisal, every American with a shred of respect for history should treat this as a red line.

We cannot shrug at the rewriting of our cultural landscape. We cannot normalize the erasure of history in the service of ego. There is no “Trump-Kennedy Center”—only a desecrated memorial and an illegal attempt to rewrite history. And we will not accept it quietly.

Until it is fixed, The Kennedy Center Honors will be boycotted and won’t be covered. History is watching, and it will remember who spoke—and who stayed silent.

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