Dems Melt Down Over GOP Push To Remove Storied Liberal Name From Landmark

“Petty.” “Small-minded.”

These are just some of the pointed criticisms by liberals fuming at a new GOP-led bill to change the longtime name of the John F. Kennedy Center, an institution paying homage to the former president and scion of a storied family political dynasty.

Legislation filed by Congressman Bob Onder (R-MO) aims to “designate the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as the ‘Donald J. Trump Center for the Performing Arts.’”

Onder, before introducing his bill, praised President Donald Trump as “a patron of the arts and a staple of the pop-culture landscape.”

The bill, titled the Make Entertainment Great Again (MEGA) Act, plays on Trump’s 2016 theme “Make America Great Again” and serves as a dig at the entertainment industry, which has largely shunned him since he first won office.

“I cannot think of a more ubiquitous symbol of American exceptionalism in the arts, entertainment, and popular culture at large than President Trump,” Onder added.

Efforts to amend the center’s namesake hallways and facilities were already underway prior to Onder’s legislation. U.S. House Republicans on the Appropriations Committee previously included an amendment during funding for the interior, environment, and other domestic agencies to rename a performance space inside the Kennedy Center to the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.”

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) said the designation would be an “excellent way to recognize [Melania Trump’s] support and commitment to promoting the arts.”

Almost immediately, members of the Kennedy family fired back, including Jack Schlossberg, the late president’s 32-year-old grandson.

“A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces — but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers,” Schlossberg wrote on social media this week, according to The Hill.

“The Trump administration stands for freedom of oppression, not expression,” he added.

Maria Shriver, another member of the Kennedy family, slammed the legislation on X.

“This is insane. It makes my blood boil. It’s so ridiculous, so petty, so small minded,” she wrote.

In February, President Trump took the unprecedented step of firing the entire board of the center, declaring them too “woke,” and appointing himself as its chair.

He toured the facility in March, telling reporters at the time that the Kennedy Center was in “tremendous disrepair.”

“We’re going to fix it up, but it’s really emblematic of our country,” Trump said at the time.

The center opened its doors in 1971, eight years after JFK was assassinated. Its website describes the 35th president as a “lifelong supporter and advocate of the arts” who “frequently steered the public discourse toward what he called ‘our contribution to the human spirit.’”

It adds that “Congress passed and President Johnson signed into law legislation renaming the National Cultural Center… as a ‘living memorial’ to Kennedy” two months after he was shot and killed.