MEGA Act Mandates Renaming of JFK Performing Arts Center to Donald J. Trump Center

The aptly named Make Entertainment Great Again Act of 2025 (or MEGA Act of 2025) is short, punchy, and zeroes in on one specific change: renaming a major national cultural institution. Specifically, Section 2 of the bill mandates that the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts—the official national center for the performing arts—will be immediately renamed the Donald J. Trump Center for the Performing Arts upon the bill becoming law. This isn't just about changing the sign out front; the bill explicitly requires that every single federal document, map, regulation, and record that currently references the Kennedy Center must be updated to reflect the new Trump Center name. It's a complete, top-to-bottom name swap orchestrated by federal law.

The Cost of a Name Change

When a bill focuses entirely on symbolism, it’s easy to overlook the nuts and bolts. But the nuts and bolts here involve administrative headaches and unbudgeted costs. This bill doesn't allocate funding for the renaming, but the requirement is clear: every agency, from the Library of Congress to the Department of Transportation (think maps and directions), must scrub its records. For the average taxpayer, this means federal employees across dozens of agencies will spend time and resources updating databases, printing new letterheads, changing signage, and revising official historical documents. While the bill itself is only two pages long, the administrative ripple effect for federal staff tasked with implementation will be significant, pulling resources away from other priorities.

The Historical Record and the Real-World Impact

For most people who occasionally visit D.C. or simply know the Kennedy Center as a national landmark, the change is purely symbolic and political. But symbols matter, especially in federal institutions intended to serve the entire nation. The Kennedy Center was established by Congress in 1964 as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy. Renaming it now effectively erases that historical designation and replaces it with a name honoring a living former President, a move that immediately politicizes a major cultural venue. This action sets a precedent for using legislative power to rename long-established national monuments based on political alignment, impacting how the public perceives the neutrality and historical continuity of federal institutions.

Who Pays and Who Benefits?

In terms of beneficiaries, the primary one is clearly Donald J. Trump, who receives the naming honor. The cost, however, is borne by the federal government and, by extension, the taxpayer, through the administrative labor required to execute the name change across all federal documentation. This bill is a textbook example of legislation that imposes a significant administrative burden and cost—updating countless federal records and physical assets—for a purely symbolic, politically motivated goal, without providing any tangible public benefit in terms of policy, funding, or operational improvements to the arts center itself.