It started quietly. Just a line tucked into a funding bill, but on Tuesday, House Republicans made a move that’s now grabbing headlines. They voted to rename the Kennedy Center’s opera house after First Lady Melania Trump.
The proposal came as part of a larger appropriations bill that sets government spending for 2026. Representative Mike Simpson of Idaho led the effort, adding an amendment to name the opera house after Melania, who serves as honorary chair of the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees.
“Yes, we renamed the opera house at the Kennedy Center for the First Lady, who is the honorary chairman of the board of trustees at the Kennedy Center,” Simpson said during a committee hearing. “This designates an excellent way to recognize her support and commitment to promoting the arts and I would encourage members to vote for this.”
House Republicans vote to name the Kennedy Center opera house after Melania Trump, “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.” The committee vote was 33-25, but the full House and Senate must still approve the name change. @disclosetv pic.twitter.com/bKyBvarEQW
— TRUTH NOW ⭐️⭐️⭐️🗽 🎺 (@sxdoc) July 23, 2025
He later added in a statement, “Naming a theater after her is an excellent way to recognize her appreciation for the arts.”
According to Simpson’s team, the Trump administration didn’t ask for this. But even so, not everyone is on board.
Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine said she was surprised to even see the proposal on the agenda. “The Republicans snuck in, I think, something that’s slightly divisive, which is renaming one section of the Kennedy Center after a family member of this administration,” she said at the hearing.
Rep. Greg Casar of Texas took to social media with a sharper response. “If you’re one of 17 million people about to lose their health care, Republicans have some good news: they’re renaming the Kennedy Center Opera House after Melania Trump.”
As it stands, the renaming passed the House Appropriations Committee 33 to 25, but it’s far from final. For the change to actually happen, it would need to survive the full House vote, then pick up 60 votes in the Senate, which is no small task. And with Congress up against a September deadline to pass funding bills or risk a partial government shutdown, the opera house name probably isn’t the biggest priority.
Still, this isn’t just about one building. The proposal comes at a time when Trump and his allies are moving to reshape the Kennedy Center’s leadership and direction.
Not long after Trump returned to office, he began replacing members of the center’s board with loyalists, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, White House aide Dan Scavino, media personalities Laura Ingraham and Maria Bartiromo, country singer Lee Greenwood, and even Second Lady Usha Vance. Trump now serves as the board’s chairman, and longtime ally Richard Grenell is president of the center.
According to one source who spoke to CBS News, the shakeup is part of an effort to steer the Kennedy Center away from “woke culture,” something Trump has criticized publicly. In February, he posted on Truth Social: “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA — ONLY THE BEST.”
The cultural shift hasn’t gone unnoticed. The team behind Hamilton recently canceled their upcoming performances at the center, citing “a new spirit of partisanship.” And when Trump and Melania showed up to watch Les Misérables last month, the crowd responded with a mix of cheers and boos.
The Kennedy Center, named for JFK, includes the Opera House, Concert Hall, Eisenhower Theater, The REACH, and more, plus arts education and national programs. Only the Opera House would be named for Melania Trump, who attended its 2025 Les Misérables opener as an honorary… pic.twitter.com/Lu5J43yuRl
— Freyja™ (@FreyjaTarte) July 22, 2025
Back in Tuesday’s hearing, Pingree expressed concern about where things are heading. She said Republicans were giving Trump “carte blanche” over the center and pointed to the $256.7 million in funding the Kennedy Center is set to receive over the next four years in a Trump-backed bill.
Simpson fired back. “Let me see if I got this straight: So, we’re upset that we didn’t fund the arts, but we’re upset that we did fund the arts?”
For now, the opera house still bears its original name. But the debate swirling around it says a lot about where art, politics, and power are intersecting in Washington, and who gets to decide what’s center stage.
