House Republicans Vote to Rename Kennedy Center Opera House After Melania Trump

House Republicans have made passage of the fiscal 2026 Interior-Environment spending bill contingent, at least for now, on renaming the opera house at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after Melania Trump.

The procedural markup of the spending bill voted on by House appropriators on Tuesday contained a short amendment from Idaho Republican Representative Mike Simpson: “Makes technical changes, designates the First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.”

The amendment was adopted by a vote of 33 to 25, though the proposed legislation with the renaming amendment has yet to receive a vote by the full Congress, nor is such polling assured.

The possible venue renaming follows U.S. President Donald Trump and wife Melania in mid-June attending a local debut of Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, D.C. The performance was marked by a protest attendance by local drag queens and an eruption of booing and reactive MAGA-rally-style chants from the crowd.

The John F. Kennedy Centre had already been retooled soon after Trump took control of the institution at the start of his second term, fired its entire board, then replaced them with loyalists including Susie Wiles, his chief of staff, Second Lady Usha Vance, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s wife, Allison, and Fox News hosts Maria Bartiromo and Laura Ingraham.  

The U.S. leader’s hand-picked board soon elected Trump to be chairman of the cultural venue. A touring production of the hit musical Hamilton decided against going ahead with plans to play the Kennedy Center in light of Trump’s takeover of the institution.