Comedy Writer Bought ‘Trump Kennedy Center’ Domain Names, Anticipating President Would Rename Institution After Himself: ‘Satire Became Unavoidable’

Last week, President Donald Trump’s name was emblazoned across the Kennedy Center’s building façade, website and social media accounts. The organization’s new name, after what the White House claimed was a unanimous vote by the board of trustees, is “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” Experts say the renaming of the Kennedy Center is illegal.

But the Kennedy Center is not the current owner of trumpkennedycenter.org or trumpkennedycenter.com — because back in August, comedy writer Toby Morton registered those two domain names, expecting Trump and his allies to add Trump’s name to the D.C. landmark.

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“As soon as Trump began gutting the Kennedy Center board earlier this year, I thought, ‘Yep, that name’s going on the building,’” Morton recently told the Washington Post. “The Kennedy Center has always been a cultural institution meant to outlast any one administration or personality. It’s meant to honor culture, not ego. Once it was treated like personal branding, satire became unavoidable.”

Snapping up domain names and using them to troll politicians has been an active pursuit for Morton, who has “South Park” and “Mad TV” writing credits (and once provided the voice of Scott Tenorman, the half-brother and nemesis of Eric Cartman, on “South Park”). Morton, whose bio on BlueSky says he is a “Creator of Anti-Fascist websites,” hasn’t launched websites on trumpkennedycenter.org or trumpkennedycenter.com at this point. But he pledged that when he does, they will “absolutely reflect the absurdity of the moment. Lots of surprises. Some things are truly hard to parody, though.”

Variety has reached out to the Kennedy Center’s press office for comment.

Morton, in a post on BlueSky this week, marveled at supportive comments from readers responding to the Post story. “I’m so used to hate comments that these from the Washington Post article feel downright refreshing. Also, a few longtime heroes of mine are quietly on board now, which helps. PRO TIP: Maybe don’t mess with an institution like The Kennedy Center? The support is growing. Watch this space.”

Per the Washington Post, Morton operates about 50 political parody sites. Those include mtg2026.org, which lampoons Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia); nancymace26.com, a fake site mocking Rep. Nancy Grace (R-South Carolina); and resignchuck.com, aimed at Democratic Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York).