The Corner
White House

Instead of Draining the Swamp, Trump Starts Renaming It After Himself

By Jeffrey Blehar
December 20, 2025 9:18 AM


Newly added lettering for U.S. President Donald Trump’s name on the facade of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a day after its board announced it would rename the institution, in Washington, D.C.,, December 2025. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

On Wednesday Donald Trump unveiled his newest addition to the White House, a series of presidential plaques featuring Trump’s own highly ungrammatical (and wildly undignified) opinions on his predecessors, engraved for posterity’s sake and put on public display. I wrote about it on Thursday morning, thinking I’d said enough about Trump’s attention-seeking and glory-thirsting outbursts for one week.

Two hours after that piece was published, Trump announced he was renaming the Kennedy Center after himself. It felt like getting slapped with a backhand after having already taken the forehand.

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