Trump’s naming spree draws legal scrutiny
by Ella Lee and Zach Schonfeld - 12/24/25 8:00 AM ET
President Trump’s bid to secure his legacy is taking on a new name — or, rather, his own.
This month, the president’s quest to leave his mark on history transcended his policy priorities and political victories in favor of renaming things in his honor.
Trump affixed his name to two Washington institutions, the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, despite one pending legal challenge and drawing another.
He also announced a new “Trump class” of battleships Monday with nuclear capabilities, the first of which, the USS Defiant, will be the “largest, deadliest and most versatile and best-looking warship anywhere on the world’s oceans,” by Navy Secretary John Phelan’s measure.
As a real estate mogul, Trump plastered his name on all his major projects. But as president, his namesake pursuit is being met with resistance.
The Kennedy Center’s renaming was challenged late Monday night in a lawsuit filed by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex-officio member of the center’s board, which voted to add Trump’s name last week.
Trump officials contended that the board’s decision to unveil The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts — or, to avoid the mouthful, the Trump-Kennedy Center — was made “unanimously.”
But Beatty asserts that’s untrue.
more
https://thehill.com/newsletters/the-gavel/5661607-trump-renames-institutions-legacy/
