President Donald Trump’s eagerness to slap his name on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts saw him make a bizarre purchase months before his board could even vote on the matter, journalist Maggie Haberman revealed Saturday.
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Haberman — co-author of the book “Regime Change” about Trump’s return to the White House — made this revelation during an MS NOW appearance in which she and host Alex Witt discussed Trump’s obsession with renovating Washington D.C.
While reporting on the book, Haberman said she noticed something “striking.”
The Kennedy Center board — packed with staunch Trump allies such as White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and his adviser Dan Scavino — made their initial vote to put his name on Kennedy Center at an interesting time, Haberman said.
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It was December, 2025 — months after Trump ordered the letters of his name.
“They had ordered the letters to do that — because there are these specially designed letters — months earlier,” Haberman said. “So it’s not as if this was some, you know, sudden, new ‘Oh my goodness, what an honor!'”
Haberman then explained what she felt was behind the strange gambit.
“He is interested in leaving his name in a way that cannot be stripped down and off of buildings and out of sight,” Haberman said. “The way it was after 2016 when he became president, in Manhattan, and then after he left Washington in 2021.”
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