The Kennedy Centre adds Trump’s name onto building

The Kennedy Centre on Friday quickly added US President Donald Trump’s name to the performing arts centre Congress designated as a living memorial to John F Kennedy, a day after the centre’s board of trustees voted to make the change.

Several blue tarpaulins were hung in front of the institution early on Friday to block views of the work under way.

A large letter D was seen on the exterior before the final tarpaulins went up, along with workers on scaffolding at the centre, which was named for Democratic president Mr Kennedy.

The board voted to rename The John F Kennedy Memorial Centre for the Performing Arts to The Donald J Trump and The John F Kennedy Memorial Centre for the Performing Arts.

Mr Trump, a Republican, is chairman of the board.

Critics of the vote, including Democratic members of Congress who are ex-board members, as well as some historians, insist that only Congress can change the name.

Congress named the performing arts centre as a living memorial to Mr Kennedy in 1964, the year after he was assassinated. The law explicitly prohibits the board of trustees from making the centre into a memorial to anyone else, and from putting another person’s name on the building’s exterior.

“The Kennedy Centre was named by law. To change the name would require a revision of that 1964 law,” Ray Smock, a former House historian, said in an email. “The Kennedy Centre board is not a lawmaking entity. Congress makes laws.”

Some Kennedy family members oppose the renaming.

The Kennedy Centre is the latest building in Washington to have Mr Trump’s name carved into it.

He recently had his name added to the building for the US Institute of Peace.

The Kennedy Centre did not immediately respond to an email message seeking comment.