According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, an oxymoron is a set of contradictory words that don’t fit. Think “jumbo shrimp” or “cruel kindness.”
Then there’s the pairing of President Trump and President Kennedy — as in The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. According to the dictionary definition, an oxymoron does not apply to a contradictory person. But this name combo pits two extremely contradictory concepts of style, values, and leadership against each other in a way that really rocks the brain.
Kennedy had personal flaws, including infidelity, that are more widely known today than they were when he won the White House in 1960. But what still remains of a presidency cut short by tragedy is the legacy of a leader who inspired a generation of Americans to think of politics as a noble endeavor and to define patriotism as an ideal beyond an insular and selfish pursuit.
“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country” is still the most famous inaugural line of the past 65 years. And from Kennedy’s perspective, patriotism meant fighting the war against communism with soft power. Rather than leadership through coercion and threats, he believed in reaching out to the world through programs that showcased America at its best. He saw connection to the global community as a path to American enrichment, rather than as a threat to American exceptionalism.
It was how Kennedy viewed the arts, too. As NPR reported, a November 1962 fund-raiser for the arts center that was first envisioned by President Dwight D. Eisenhower featured conductor Leonard Bernstein and a diverse cast of artists, including cellist Yo-Yo Ma, then 7, and his sister, pianist Yeou-Cheng Ma, then 11.
In his introduction, Bernstein specifically recognized the siblings as two immigrants to America, and in his remarks, Kennedy said, “As a great democratic society, we have a special responsibility to the arts — for art is the great democrat, calling forth creative genius from every sector of society, disregarding race or religion or wealth or color. The mere accumulation of wealth and power is available to the dictator and the democrat alike; what freedom alone can bring is the liberation of the human mind and spirit which finds its greatest flowering in the free society.”
In every way, Trump stands for the opposite. That’s why the decision of his handpicked board members to add his name to the Kennedy Center moniker is so offensive. Stomping on Kennedy’s graceful rhetoric of inclusion and his quest to frame art in the context of freedom of expression and democracy, Trump has taken up a crude, classless, and bellicose campaign to bully and denigrate the rest of the world. Meanwhile, he whines about “wokeness” in the arts, and specifically at the Kennedy Center.
Adding the Trump name to what was conceived as a living memorial to the assassinated president comes at an especially cruel time for JFK’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, who is dealing with the terminal illness of her daughter, Tatiana Schlossberg. But once again, that trenchant observation by Adam Serwer in The Atlantic applies: With Trump, “the cruelty is the point.”
Kennedy’s daughter has not spoken out about the name change, but other Kennedy family members have voiced objections.
As Kennedy’s niece, Maria Shriver, wrote on X, “The Kennedy Center was named after my uncle, President John F Kennedy. It was named in his honor. He was a man who was interested in the arts, interested in culture, interested in education, language, history. He brought the arts into the White House, and he and my Aunt Jackie amplified the arts, celebrated the arts, stood up for the arts and artists. It is beyond comprehension that this sitting president has sought to rename this great memorial dedicated to President Kennedy. It is beyond wild that he would think adding his name in front of President Kennedy’s name is acceptable. It is not.”
Directing his comments to Kennedy Center board members, Maria Shriver’s brother, Tim Shriver, asked on X, “Would they rename the Lincoln memorial? The Jefferson?”
If Trump wants it, someone will. Or he will do it himself.
To Trump, the Kennedy Center is another branding opportunity, one more place to showcase his name, like a casino, office tower, steaks, or an airline.
But with the Kennedy Center, it could be even more than that. It is another way to accomplish what the “The Bulwark” recently suggested could be Trump’s larger mission, to bury the Kennedy legacy. Signature programs from the Kennedy era, such as USAID, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Peace Corps have been severely cut or threatened with cuts.
Trump has also embraced Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the one Kennedy family member rejected by most of the others, as his secretary of health and human services.
Congress has the legal authority to change the Kennedy Center name. But for now, it’s done. Trump’s name precedes Kennedy’s name on a building dedicated to Kennedy’s memory and what he stood for in the arts and beyond.
Whether or not that’s technically oxymoronic — it’s wrong.
Joan Vennochi is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at joan.vennochi@globe.com. Follow her @joan_vennochi.