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Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Sunday that living public officials should not have buildings named after them and proposed a rule banning such renaming efforts.
This comes as President Donald Trump continues to push for the Kennedy Center to be named after him. The president has also sought to rename other prominent federal buildings in Washington, D.C., in his honor since returning to the White House last year.
Kennedy said public officials, including Trump, should not “spend public money on private advertisements for themselves.”
“The White House sees it differently, but … you can’t spend public money to … promote yourself,” Kennedy told host Margaret Brennan during an appearance on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
KENNEDY CENTER CEILING PARTIALLY COLLAPSES AS TRUMP-LED BOARD PUSHES FOR 2-YEAR CLOSURE
Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, DC, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Kennedy’s comments come as a new ad promoting Trump appeared on several networks, funded by the federal government.
The senator then suggested that public officials should not be able to name a building after themselves during their lifetime.
“I might end up with a sombrero on my head, but I also think we should have a rule that no politician can have a building named after him in his lifetime,” he said, referring to Trump mocking Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., last year by sharing AI videos of lawmakers wearing sombreros.
FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS TRUMP’S NAME REMOVED FROM KENNEDY CENTER, SAYS ONLY CONGRESS CAN RENAME HIM
People watch construction workers build scaffolding near the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts sign in Washington, DC, June 12, 2026. The Kennedy Center board of trustees requested an emergency appeal to block a court order requiring the removal of President Trump’s name, but a judge denied the request. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Trump attempted to rename several buildings after his return to the Oval Office, including the Kennedy Center, although federal judges blocked several attempts by the center’s board of directors — hand-picked by Trump — to add the president’s name to the building.
Trump’s name was briefly added to the building’s facade, but was removed after the courts ruled that only Congress had the authority to change the center’s name.
The State Department also added Trump’s name last year to the U.S. Institute of Peace, but former institute officials fired by the Trump administration filed a lawsuit earlier this month to block construction crews from putting the president’s name on the exterior of the building.
Workers place signage with the name of U.S. President Donald Trump on the facade of the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, U.S., Friday, December 19, 2025. (Al Drago/Getty Images)
Trump also suggested he wanted New York’s Penn Station and the Washington area’s Dulles Airport to bear his name as a condition of a funding deal earlier this year.
The president also floated a plan to build a promenade connecting the back of the Lincoln Memorial to the Potomac River, saying his allies wanted to call it the “Trump Parkway.”
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“They want to call it the Trump Promenade, but I don’t know if I want to do that, but it’s going to be beautiful,” he said at the time.
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