As President Donald Trump fights to rename the Kennedy Center after himself, administration officials are circulating a list of government sites that could have his name affixed to them in some way, according to people familiar with the effort.
One landmark that has emerged in the discussions among administration officials has raised eyebrows: Ford’s Theatre, the playhouse where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865.
It is unclear how seriously the theater is being considered or how the administration would attach Trump’s name to it. One administration official said the idea had been discussed, but they didn’t know where it stood. The prospect sparked a flurry of discussion over the past week among people responsible for the historic site.
The discussions underscore how much of a priority honoring the president has become inside parts of the Trump administration — even as the Iran war nears its eighth month, diesel prices hit an all-time high, the midterm elections approach in six weeks and most Americans disapprove of the president’s job performance.
White House officials, advisers and allies pitch ideas such as naming buildings after Trump to get on the president’s good side, a former administration official told MS NOW, granted anonymity to discuss internal matters. The president’s view, the official said: “Why would I say no? Everybody’s trying to please me.”
“They know flattery gets them everything,” the former official said, adding that people wait to hear “How can I help you?” in return.
One person with knowledge of the broader renaming effort who requested anonymity to address a sensitive topic said officials were looking for buildings and other sites that could carry the president’s name while presenting an easier legal path than the Kennedy Center push.
Ford’s Theatre and the Petersen House, where Lincoln later died, are owned by the Interior Department and maintained by the National Park Service as the Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site. The Interior Department manages roughly a fifth of the nation’s land, including the 433 units of the National Park System, more than 570 national wildlife refuges and hundreds of dams and reservoirs across the West.
Since returning to office, Trump has imprinted himself on Washington, D.C. In addition to the Kennedy Center, his appointees have renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace for him; put his likeness on U.S. passports, an NPS pass and a 24-karat gold $1 coin; hung large banners adorned with his face outside the departments of Justice, Labor and Agriculture; moved ahead with plans for a 250-foot “triumphal” arch near Arlington National Cemetery; discussed opening a promenade at the Lincoln Memorial; demolished the East Wing of the White House to make way for a new ballroom built to his specifications; and paved over the White House’s Rose Garden for a Mar-a-Lago-style patio.
The president and top administration officials have also reportedly discussed putting his name on Penn Station in New York, Dulles International Airport in Virginia and the new Washington Commanders stadium. Trump has denied pursuing the renaming of Penn Station. Some Republican lawmakers have gone so far as introducing legislation to rename Dulles for Trump. And then-White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in November that it would be “beautiful” for the Commanders’ stadium to bear Trump’s name.
Ford’s Theatre might be a bit different.
The scene of one of the great tragedies and turning points of American history, it is a working theater, a museum and a living memorial to Lincoln.
“What a place,” Trump said in a June 2019 gala speech at Ford’s Theatre before turning his attention to the box where the nation’s 16th president was shot. “You look right there, and that says it all. That’s history at its highest.”
The site’s name is set by a federal statute signed by former President Richard Nixon, which means a formal renaming would almost certainly require an act of Congress. That constraint did not stop the administration from putting Trump’s name on the Institute of Peace or the Kennedy Center. Both drew immediate litigation.
In response to a request for comment, the White House denied MS NOW’s reporting. “This story is completely false,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said. A spokesperson for the Interior Department added, via email: “This is not true.”
The director of the Ford’s Theatre Society and the chair of its board did not reply to a request for comment.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introduced legislation in January that would bar the naming of federal buildings or land after a sitting president, retroactive to the Kennedy Center and the Institute of Peace. It has not advanced.
The theater is currently staging “Come From Away,” a musical about the Canadian town that took in thousands of passengers whose U.S.-bound flights were grounded after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The production is part of the theater’s commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks — an effort for which former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush lent their names as honorary chairs.
Felicia Schwartz, Madeleine Bimonte and Nora McKee contributed reporting.
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