WASHINGTON — Kennedy Center opens adding Donald Trump's name into the building on Friday, a day after the president-elected council voted to do so.
Early Friday, several blue tarps were hung in front of the building to block views of the work being done by workers on scaffolding. A large D, and later “Donald”, was seen at the entrance to the center, originally named for John F. Kennedy, the Democratic president.
Advice trustees voted to add Trump's name, making it the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. Trump, a Republican, is chairman of the board.
Critics of the vote, including Democratic members of Congress who are ex-officio board members and some historians, insist that only Congress can change the name.
“The Kennedy Center was named by law. Changing the name would require a revision of that 1964 law,” Ray Smock, a former House historian, said in an email. “The Kennedy Center Board is not a lawmaking body. Congress makes laws.”
Congress named the performing arts center as a living memorial to Kennedy in 1964, a year after his assassination. The law expressly prohibits The board of trustees should be prohibited from turning the center into a memorial for anyone else or from placing another person's name on the outside of the building.
Some members of the Kennedy family oppose the renaming.
The Kennedy Center is the latest building in Washington to have Trump's name on it. His name was recently added to a building in honor of US Institute of Peace.
The Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment Friday.
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Associated Press National Writer Hillel Italia in New York contributed to this report.
