‘Kennedy Center Honors’ Will Add ‘Trump’ to Name, Move to Smaller Venue

“The Kennedy Center Honors” have been presented under that longstanding, historic name for the final time. (Or at least for the last time for the next three years.) To the surprise of probably few people, the awards program will henceforth be known as “The Trump Kennedy Center Honors,” in keeping with the effort of the board installed by President Donald J. Trump to rebrand everything related to the institution with his name.

The show will also take place at an alternative, smaller venue for at least the next couple of years, and not at the historic hall in Washington, D.C. that was had its own name change to give the president top billing, under authority that is still disputed by many experts.

The program “will definitely go forward,” said Richard Grenell, the president of the center, in an interview with D.C. news radio station WTOP. “It will probably just be in a smaller venue, which just means ticket demand will be even higher.”

The new location for “The Trump Kennedy Center Honors” “is yet to be determined,” but “we’re already looking for different places,” Grenell told the news station.

The Washington Post confirmed Grenell’s radio revelation about the name change and move with representatives of the center on Saturday.

The reason the show will have to find a different home is due to the fact that the Kennedy Center – or Trump Kennedy Center, depending on where you stand — is set to close for a couple of years for an extensive and controversial overhaul. Grenell’s announcement of the closure, scheduled to take place this year, followed a series of news reports about withdrawals from the center by cultural institutions or individual artists that left its calendar for 2026 severely underpopulated. Some who have decried the politicization of the center under the Trump administration have held that the highly unexpected move to submit the center to an extensive makeover is a cover for…