Surprise! Trump's handpicked board renames Kennedy Center after him

Shortly after retaking office, Donald Trump fired every single member of the Kennedy Center's governing board and replaced them with cronies, administration staffers, and family-adjacent influencers. Then they made him chairman. Now they've voted to rename the building after him. And now, a structure built to honor America's arts and the legacy of President John F. Kennedy is about to have a large, likely gold-lettered "Trump" slapped on the side of it.

The White House claims this is to reward Trump's "unbelievable" role in saving the building, primarily by securing $257 million in congressional funding for renovations. This funding was neither "unbelievable" nor unconditional. The real surprise, perhaps, is that they stopped before removing Kennedy's name.

Subscriptions and attendance are down. The building may have been envisioned to honor a president who saw the arts as a civilizing force. Still, now they've added a co-dedication to a president who believes the National Endowment for the Arts should be eliminated. Seems JFK and The Orange Menace are not precisely aligned on the value of art as a tool for promoting cultural understanding.

The United States of America has become so much less under Trump it is hard to believe.