Kennedy Center Honors to be renamed for Donald Trump, happening at ‘yet to be determined’ new venue

The Kennedy Center Honors will continue even as the Washington, D.C., venue associated with them closes temporarily. They will also be rebranded with President Donald Trump’s name.

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Ric Grenell, the president of the Kennedy Center, told the radio station WTOP that the annual awards ceremony, which began in 1978, will be called “The Trump Kennedy Center Honors.” That’s in line with Trump’s unauthorized rebranding of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which includes signage putting his own name before that of the slain Democratic president after whom the venue is named, on the building itself. Federal law forbids renaming the property or adding additional memorials without an act of Congress.

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After that rebranding led to an even greater number of performers cancelling events at the venue, Trump and Grenell announced the venue's multi-year closure for a massive renovation that begins on July 6. But Grenell, in his interview with WTOP, said the closure of facilities won’t mean the awards get cancelled.

“It will definitely go forward,” Grenell said. “It will probably just be in a smaller venue, which just means ticket demand will be even higher. This year’s honors, we raised more money and had more ticket demand than ever before.” The Kennedy Center has struggled to sell out shows since Grenell and Trump took over. Trump, who also bestowed honors on friends and performers aligned with his personal taste, hosted the awards ceremony last year. The result was a 35 percent decline in ratings and an all-time low in viewership.

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Grenell, one of Trump’s most outspoken gay supporters, took over as interim director of the Kennedy Center after an overhaul of the entire board, which installed Trump as its chairman. Trump promised to expunge “woke” programming, including drag shows, from the venue’s future seasons.

Plenty of that has happened self-selectively as well, with many performers who object to Trump’s politics cancelling appearances based on concerns about union workers and overall disgust with the direction of the Kennedy Center under Grenell.

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During his tenure, the administrator has also welcomed some of the artists who fulfilled their performance obligations by organizing hecklers to attend shows.

In September, after pulling the show, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of Hamilton, told The Advocate’s sibling publication Out that it was an “easy decision” to withdraw the Tony-winning musical from this year’s Kennedy Center schedule.