'And Now, the Trump Kennedy Center Honors': CBS Kicks Off Awards Ceremony Broadcast with MAGA's New Name for JFK Memorial

'And Now, the Trump Kennedy Center Honors': CBS Kicks Off Awards Ceremony Broadcast with MAGA's New Name for JFK Memorial https://ift.tt/oXVsGPt

The Kennedy Center, a living memorial for assassinated President John F. Kennedy, was retitled to honor President Donald Trump earlier this month

Tracey Salazar/CB

President Donald Trump hosts the 48th Annual Kennedy Center Honors, which aired on CBS on Dec. 23

NEED TO KNOW

• CBS aired the 48th Annual Kennedy Center Honors on Tuesday, Dec. 23, calling the awards ceremony by a new name at the start of the broadcast
• On Dec. 18, the Trump-appointed Kennedy Center board voted to rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after President Donald Trump
  
• Though the Kennedy Center Honors were pre-taped before the institution's name changed, CBS began its broadcast on Tuesday night with a voiceover that said, "And now, the Trump Kennedy Center Honors..."
  

CBS aired the Kennedy Center Honors on Tuesday, Dec. 23, in the midst of a contentious name change at the iconic performing arts institution in Washington, D.C.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Dec. 18 that the Kennedy Center — which was dedicated in 1964 as a living memorial for murdered President John F. Kennedy — would now be known as "The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts."

This year's Kennedy Center Honors awards ceremony was pre-taped before the host organization underwent its name change, leaving uncertainty about whether CBS would rebrand its broadcast to reflect Trump's preferred name for the center.

In the end, CBS kept the title of the special program "The 48th Annual Kennedy Center Honors," consistent with how it appeared when the ceremony was filmed, but prefaced the broadcast with a voiceover that stated, "And now, the Trump Kennedy Center Honors on CBS."

At the same time as the voiceover, a frame appeared on the screen that read, "The Kennedy Center Honors" with the words, "The following is a Donald J. Trump and Kennedy Center Production" underneath.

In her Dec. 18 statement about the newly named "Trump Kennedy Center," Leavitt claimed that the institution's MAGA-aligned board "voted unanimously" to rename the center; however, Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center board who has an automatic vote because of her position in Congress, alleged she was silenced while trying to oppose the change.

"Be clear: I was on that call, and as I tried to push my button to voice my concern, to ask questions and certainly not to vote in support of this, I was muted," Beatty said in a video shared via X on Dec. 18. "Participants were not allowed to voice their concerns who were online, yet it was said at the end it was a unanimous vote."

Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty

The Kennedy Center now bears Donald Trump's name

The Kennedy Center was established by an act of Congress, and Trump's critics have argued in recent days that only Congress is authorized to formally change its name.

Even so, the Kennedy Center almost immediately updated its logo on the website and social media to read "The Trump Kennedy Center," and the next day, Trump's name was added to the signage on the building's exterior.

Prominent members of JFK's family — including grandson Jack Schlossberg, grandnephew Joe Kennedy III, and nieces Maria Shriver and Kerry Kennedy — have spoken out against the unusual effort to put Trump's name on another president's memorial.

Tracey Salazar/CBS

Michael Crawford, Sylvester Stallone, President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump at the Kennedy Center Honors, which aired on Dec. 23, 2025

While emceeing the Kennedy Center Honors awards ceremony, Trump took time to slam people in the audience.

"If there is one thread that connects all of these amazing artists together, it is the word persistence," he said. "I can say that with a lot of the members of our audience, I know so many of you and you are persistent," Trump added, before jabbing that "many of you are miserable, horrible people."

Mary Kouw/CBS

President Donald Trump hosts the 48th Annual Kennedy Center Honors, which was pre-taped on Dec. 7, 2025

The Kennedy Center Honors is an annual event honoring artists for their significant impact on American culture through music, dance, theater, opera, film or television.

Trump made history at the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors as the first sitting president to host the event, where he honored Sylvester Stallone, George Strait, KISS, Gloria Gaynor and Michael Crawford. Honorees were selected by Trump's hand-picked Kennedy Center board.

Trump's board appointees voted him chairman of the Kennedy Center earlier in the year, giving him unprecedented control over the historically nonpartisan institution.