For an alternate viewpoint, see “Counterpoint: Trump’s Name Belongs on the Building He Is Saving.
Donald Trump famously likes to put his name on things he builds as monuments to himself. It might be conceited, vain and unseemly, but that is his right.
What he doesn’t have the right to do is permanently plaster his name on the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. To do so would not just be unlawful. It would be a disgrace.
In a narrow legal sense, Trump’s attempt to foist his name on the Kennedy Center broke the law, a federal judge has ruled, because Congress named the center in honor of the slain president, and only Congress can change the name.
However, there are much more substantive reasons to keep Trump’s name off. John F. Kennedy stood for patriotism, moral leadership of the Free World, an America proudly open to immigrants, and a country that embraces civil rights for all. It is hard to think of a president more diametrically opposed to Kennedy’s values than Donald J. Trump.
