Donald Trump has lashed out at claims his administration is considering adding the president’s name to another building.
On Wednesday, MS NOW reported, citing unnamed sources, that officials had raised the possibility of adding Trump’s name to Ford’s Theatre, the Washington, D.C., playhouse where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865.
It is unclear how Trump’s name would be added to the historic site or how seriously the administration took the idea. The 80-year-old president is already seeking to have his name permanently added to the Kennedy Center as part of his MAGA rebrand of D.C.
Trump has now blasted the report as “fake news” in a rant on Truth Social.
“The story that the White House, or me, want to affix my name to Ford’s Theatre, in Washington, D.C., where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, is a ridiculous lie. It is FAKE NEWS! Who would possibly want a name on such a tragic place?” Trump posted.
“The Dumocrats suffer from serious Trump Derangement Syndrome. They are Degenerates and Losers who make up lie after lie, and this Ford’s Theatre Hoax is just another one of their never-ending, malicious falsehoods to try to discredit and demean. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
The MS NOW report alleges that administration officials constantly suggest naming buildings after the president to get on Trump’s good side.
“They know flattery gets them everything,” a former administration official said, adding that people wait to hear, “How can I help you?” in return.
The administration reportedly also believes Ford’s Theatre, owned by the Interior Department and maintained by the National Park Service, would be easier to add Trump’s name to than the Kennedy Center.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle previously told the Daily Beast that the Ford’s Theatre report was “completely false” and came from “anonymous sources who have no clue what they’re talking about.”
MS NOW was one of three news outlets that Trump tried to have banned from the White House while claiming they “constantly write or report FICTION and LIES” about him.
However, a judge ordered the White House to immediately restore press credentials for MS NOW, CNN and Politico after the news organizations filed a lawsuit claiming the ban violated the First Amendment.
Speaking on his Politics War Room podcast, veteran Democratic strategist James Carville suggested that the idea Trump would want to add his name to Ford’s Theatre stems from what he described as the president’s “particular hatred” for D.C.
“Why do you think he is trying to defile everything he can, from the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery, to the reflecting pool, to the White House?” Carville said.
“He wants to destroy Washington,” he added. “He hates what Washington is, what Washington stands for. He doesn’t like the architecture. He doesn’t like the inherent modesty that comes with being part of a constitution that was written and went into effect in 1789.”
