Trump aides are considering putting his name on Ford’s Theatre, the site of Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, according to a report from MS Now. The move comes after stalled efforts to rename the Kennedy Center after Trump.
MS Now reports that Ford’s Theatre is one of several buildings being considered. The full extent of the talks is unclear, but the proposal reflects a pattern of aides seeking favor with the president through grand gestures.
Trump’s First Choice Was the Kennedy Center
Trump’s first choice for a renamed landmark was the Kennedy Center, which is associated with John F. Kennedy. His second choice was Lincoln. The report describes a pattern where aides bring forward ideas partly to curry favor with the president.
An anonymous source told MS Now that such ideas mostly come from aides seeking favor with the president. That same source quoted the sentiment: “They know flattery gets them everything.”
“They know flattery gets them everything”
Trump himself appears to have no objection to the idea. When asked about it, he responded, “Why would I say no? Everybody’s trying to please me.”
The Buildings Under Consideration
Ford’s Theatre is owned by the Interior Department and maintained by the National Park Service. Other reported sites under consideration include:
- New York’s Penn Station
- Virginia’s Dulles International Airport
- The new stadium for the Washington Commanders
The report does not say whether any of these proposals have been formally submitted or rejected.
A Legal Question Mark Over All of Them
Legal observers expect many of these buildings would be as hard for Trump to rename unilaterally as the Kennedy Center. The report does not name specific legal barriers, but it suggests the process would likely require formal approval beyond a simple presidential directive.
What This Says About the Administration
The proposal is a small but telling example of executive overreach. The report’s anonymous source suggests that aides are bringing forward these ideas in part to curry favor with the president. That dynamic — officials proposing grand gestures to win the boss’s approval — is a familiar one in Washington, but it is still worth noting when it involves places as historically significant as Ford’s Theatre.
The fact that Trump’s response was simply “Why would I say no?” paints a picture of an administration where loyalty is rewarded and dissent is discouraged.
The report raises questions about how these proposals will be received. Will Congress take them seriously? Will the public treat them as jokes? Will the legal system simply reject them on technical grounds?
Those answers are not yet known. What is known is that the administration is actively considering a proposal that would rename a building named for the man who was killed there.
The story is a reminder that the White House can propose almost anything, but getting it done is another matter entirely.
Where the paper stands
The paper backs neither renaming plan and is against any office or agency writing its own authority to take such action, whatever the building or the name. The proposal to rename Ford’s Theatre is a small but telling example of executive overreach, and the dynamic behind it — aides bringing forward grand gestures to curry favor — is one the paper has warned against repeatedly.
The fact that Trump responded with “Why would I say no?” speaks to an administration where loyalty is rewarded and dissent is discouraged. That is not how a free country operates, and it is not how the paper wants the country to operate.
The reader should watch for more of the same: aides advancing proposals they know are unlikely to succeed, simply to show they are working to please the boss. The paper will continue to call attention to it, as it has before, without backing any party or plan.
See the video the story is built around at Consequence.
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