POLITICS NEWS – GOP moves to rename Kennedy Center Opera House after Melania Trump

Ananya Roy, News Writer

House Republicans have advanced an amendment to rename the Kennedy Center’s Opera House after former First Lady Melania Trump. The proposal, authored by Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), was attached to a bill funding the Interior Department and passed through the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday. If included in a broader government funding package this fall, the venue would officially become the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.” The opera house, the second-largest theater in the Kennedy Center, currently bears no namesake.

The amendment is part of a broader push by President Donald Trump and his allies to reshape the Kennedy Center’s identity. Since returning to office, Trump has taken control of the center’s board, fired appointees, and publicly opposed performances featuring drag artists. The venue also announced in April that its exterior will now be permanently lit in red, white, and blue,  a symbolic shift aligned with the administration’s cultural priorities. Critics say the moves politicize a traditionally nonpartisan institution dedicated to the performing arts.