(COVER PHOTO: Heather Diehl/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
(CNN) — New signage was being installed at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy performing arts center on Dec. 19 to include President Donald Trump’s name.
It comes after the institution’s board of trustees, who Trump appointed after firing the former board, voted a day earlier to rename the facility by including Trump.
The building, known as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, has been renamed by the trustees to the Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.
The center’s social media accounts also were updated to put Trump’s name above Kennedy’s.
However, the legality of the move remains in question. It is unclear if the board has the authority to rename the arts institution, which Congress designated as a memorial to Kennedy in 1964 following his assassination the year before.
The renaming drew criticism from the Kennedy family, with Maria Shriver, Kennedy’s niece, calling the effort to rename the memorial after Trump “beyond comprehension.”
After returning to office for his second term, Trump dramatically reshaped the performing arts center, gutting the board of trustees and ousting its chairman. And soon after, Trump was elected chair of the center following his appointment of several new members to the board. At Trump’s direction, the programming was changed.
The new signage marks the second time this month that a federal building has been renamed after Trump.
The president’s name was installed on the building and signage around the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), an independent agency, on December 3. USIP was gutted earlier this year and the Trump administration took over its building. Large banners with Trump’s picture were hung on the exterior of a few other federal buildings in the nation’s capital.
The-CNN-Wire
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