President Donald Trump’s hand-picked Kennedy Center board changed the arts venue’s bylaws more than six months ago to pave the way for a legally dubious effort to add Trump’s name to the center.
The Trump administration bragged that the board of trustees voted “unanimously” on Dec. 18 to rename the venue The Trump Kennedy Center.
That claim defied logic, given that by law, the board consists of both presidentially appointed members and a bipartisan group of “ex officio” members, including the majority and minority leaders of the U.S. House and Senate.
The list of appointed trustees now reads like a who’s who of the president’s supporters in business and media—and includes many of his own officials and their spouses. But some Democratic ex officio members said they tried to oppose the renaming and were muted during the Dec. 18 meeting.
It turns out that in May, the Kennedy Center changed its bylaws so that only members installed by Trump can vote, The Washington Post revealed Wednesday.
That’s despite the fact that the federal law that established the Kennedy Center identifies the ex officio members as part of the board of trustees and instructs them to maintain and administer the facility as a memorial to the late President John F. Kennedy Jr.
The law does not distinguish between voting and nonvoting members, though it’s common for ex officio members to skip meetings or send proxies in their place.
The new bylaws also specify that the general trustees “serve at the pleasure of the president” and say the chairman of the board—in this case, Trump—can appoint a president to “function as the chief executive officer.”
A spokesperson for the Center told the Post that ex officio members had never voted, and that the bylaws were “revised to reflect this longstanding precedent.” The changes were communicated before the meeting, and “no concerns were voiced,” the spokesperson said.
The Daily Beast has reached out for comment.
Trump purged the Kennedy Center’s bipartisan board of trustees in February and took over as chairman of the new board, announcing he would be actively involved in the center’s programming and installing MAGA loyalist Ric Grenell as interim executive director.
The beleaguered arts venue has since been plagued by artist cancellations, boycotts, protests, and an embarrassing drop in ticket sales, with those artists who have remained describing the agony of performing for empty seats.
The president has been openly fantasizing since at least August about renaming the Kennedy Center in his own honor, culminating in the Dec. 18 vote.
Legal experts say that only Congress can change the name, but within 24 hours, the venue’s website had been updated, and workers had added Trump’s name to the building.
Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, who sits on the board, has sued to halt the rebranding, which she says was not placed on the trustees’ meeting agenda in advance and was not legal anyway.
Other lawmakers have vowed to introduce legislation explicitly barring Trump from adding his likeness to the institution.
The Kennedy Center was initially commissioned as a “National Cultural Center” in 1958 under President Dwight Eisenhower. His successor, Kennedy, worked hard to raise funds for its construction after taking office in 1961, but was assassinated in November 1963.
The following year, President Lyndon Johnson signed a bill renaming the future center after the slain president to honor his memory and his commitment to the arts.
Construction of the sprawling building began in 1966, and it was finally opened in 1971, with Richard Nixon in the presidential box Trump now calls his own.
The Kennedy family has responded with outrage to Trump’s efforts to add himself to the memorial for the slain president.
