Republican Panel Votes to Name Kennedy Center Opera House After Melania Trump

The move to honor the first lady comes amid a Trump-led shakeup of the arts center leadership and debate over its cultural direction.

President Donald Trump (L) and first lady Melania Trump arrive at the opening night of "Les Miserables" at the Kennedy Center in Washington on June 11, 2025. Alex wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images

A House Republican panel has advanced a measure to rename the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ opera house after first lady Melania Trump, with the committee chairman saying the move intends to honor the first lady’s advocacy for the arts and humanities.

The naming of the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House” was written into a government funding bill approved in a 33–28 vote on July 22.

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who as chairman of the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee oversees the Kennedy Center budget, proposed the amendment during a committee markup of the bill, which funds the Interior Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, and related agencies for the 2026 fiscal year.

“First Lady Melania Trump serves as the Honorary Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Kennedy Center,” Simpson said in a statement. “Naming a theater after her is an excellent way to recognize her appreciation for the arts.”

He added that he is “proud to honor her support and commitment in promoting the arts and humanities.”

Though the renaming measure cleared the House Appropriations Committee, its future remains uncertain. With Democrats controlling enough seats in the Senate to block appropriations bills, the amendment could face resistance when the full legislation comes up for a vote.

The top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), criticized the inclusion of the amendment to change the name of the opera house as unexpected and divisive.

“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 subcommittee hearing.

Pingree also objected to broader changes in Kennedy Center leadership under the Trump administration.

“This year, there was quite a big change that occurred,” she said. “You may have heard, President Trump decided to fire the president, the chairman, and all the Biden board members, and installed other people whom he chose would be, in his mind, better people to be on the board of the Kennedy Center. Now, the board is entirely made up of appointees that come from the president, with no diversity between different presidents’ appointments, and he made himself the chair.”

The Epoch Times has contacted the White House for comment on Pingree’s criticism.

The sweeping overhaul of the Kennedy Center’s leadership came amid Trump’s dissatisfaction with what he described as the center’s promotion of “anti-American propaganda” such as drag performances and politically charged programming. Trump has vowed to realign the Kennedy Center with his “vision for a Golden Age of American Arts and Culture,” promising a return to what he considers more traditional and broadly popular artistic offerings.

Shortly after assuming the chairmanship, Trump appointed Richard Grenell—former U.S. ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence—as interim president of the center. Grenell has expressed concern over the state of affairs at the Kennedy Center, including deferred maintenance reaching “crisis” levels.

While attending a Kennedy Center board meeting in March for the first time as the new chair, Trump vowed to “make it great again,” saying he would work with Congress to secure the necessary funding to revive a facility he said was in “tremendous disrepair.”

The recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Trump signed at the beginning of July included $257 million for Kennedy Center repairs, restoration, maintenance, and security.