Day 332 of Trump’s assault on America

Today, the Kennedy Center Board, filled entirely with Trump appointees, voted to rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to the “Trump-Kennedy Center.” A building created to honor a president who was assassinated while in office, a space that represents America’s national commitment to the arts, education, and public service, has now been rebranded in honor of a man who has done more to attack truth, defund cultural institutions, and divide this nation than anyone in modern history.

Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, shared the following message on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter:

“I have just been informed that the highly respected Board of the Kennedy Center, some of the most successful people from all parts of the world, have just voted unanimously to rename the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center, because of the unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building. Not only from the standpoint of its reconstruction, but also financially, and its reputation. Congratulations to President Donald J. Trump, and likewise, congratulations to President Kennedy, because this will be a truly great team long into the future! The building will no doubt attain new levels of success and grandeur.”

To which Orin Kerr, a Stanford Law professor, responded plainly:

“For those wondering, 20 U.S.C. § 76i states that the building is ‘designated as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.’ § 76k lists the powers of the Board: soliciting gifts, hiring employees, and proposing plans for sidewalks. Nothing about, or close to, renaming.”

Maria Shriver, JFK’s niece, had a different message to share:

“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. Next thing perhaps he will want to rename JFK Airport, rename the Lincoln Memorial, the Trump Lincoln Memorial. The Trump Jefferson Memorial. The Trump Smithsonian. The list goes on.

Can we not see what is happening here? C’mon, my fellow Americans! Wake up! This is not dignified. This is not funny. This is way beneath the stature of the job. It’s downright weird. It’s obsessive in a weird way. Just when you think someone can’t stoop any lower, down they go…”

Day 332 of Trump’s presidency: December 18, 2025
The next chapter of the fascist playbook has been opened.

And as much as we can debate the legal authority or the moral justification behind this, the larger takeaway is that Trump and his enablers are simply continuing to move through the authoritarian playbook. Because when you rewrite names, you erase shared history. You replace a collective memory with a single narrative, and that narrative centers power as permanent and unquestionable. It sends the message that this moment is settled, that this rule is definitive, that there is no going back. When one man’s name is stamped onto cultural institutions, public buildings, and national symbols, it creates the illusion of inevitability, as if he has already been crowned rather than elected. And when that name is everywhere, it changes behavior. People hesitate. They self-censor. They start to feel watched, even when no one is in the room. That is the point. This is not about honoring history. It is about controlling it and using that control to signal dominance, permanence, and obedience.

The Kennedy Center wasn’t just named after President John F. Kennedy; it was created as a memorial to him, passed by Congress after his assassination, to reflect what he stood for. JFK believed in the power of art and culture to bring people together, to challenge ideas, to uplift society. He didn’t just support the arts; he institutionalized them. He worked with his wife, Jackie Kennedy, to bring musicians and poets into the White House. He believed that freedom of expression was central to democracy. His legacy was one of looking outward and upward, of building something better. This center wasn’t just a building. It was a symbol of that promise. And today, it was hijacked.

This is how authoritarian movements work. They start by rewriting the past, renaming buildings, taking over symbols, and replacing shared history with loyalty to one man. Once they’ve claimed the past, they move to the present. Control the story. Control the stage. Use performance to keep people distracted while the system underneath them is being dismantled.

Trump is planning something he’s calling the “Patriot Games,” a four-day athletic competition where each U.S. state and territory sends one male and one female high school student to compete as part of his 250th anniversary celebration of America. In the announcement, he promised “no men playing in women’s sports,” a dig wrapped in policy signaling. What he didn’t say is that this isn’t about athletics, it’s about control and spectacle. Governors and commentators immediately compared it to The Hunger Games, and they’re not wrong. It’s not just the structure, one boy and one girl sent from every district, it’s the logic behind it: use youth, competition, and nationalism to mask what’s really going on. Keep people focused on the show while the structure underneath them collapses. Turn kids into political props. Wrap the whole thing in “patriotism.” The cruelty is strategic. The distraction is intentional. And the deeper we get into this performance-based authoritarianism, the more dangerous it becomes, because eventually, people forget it’s a performance.

What Trump is planning with the Patriot Games isn’t new. It mirrors the way authoritarian regimes have always used children, not to uplift them, but to package obedience as national pride. Hitler’s regime did the same through the Hitler Youth. Boys were enrolled in “Reich Youth Competitions” that judged physical strength, discipline, and, above all, loyalty to the Führer. Girls were pushed into fitness programs framed as preparation for motherhood and national service. It wasn’t about health. It wasn’t about sport. It was about shaping identity and control. By 1939, participation became mandatory. These competitions were often tied to national milestones, just like Trump’s timing with the 250th anniversary. At the Nazi Nuremberg Rallies, children paraded publicly, gave televised oaths to Hitler, and were held up as the proud future of the regime. The world saw blond, athletic, smiling youth, not as individuals, but as propaganda. It created the illusion of a thriving, unified society, while rights were being stripped, dissent criminalized, and fear normalized. That’s the strategy. Use competition, nationalism, and spectacle to sell control. And the more people cheer for it, the harder it becomes to see what’s really happening underneath.

And as much as we talk about Trump, it’s important to remember this was never just about him. We knew who he was. What still shocks me and what stays with me is how many people around him, in Congress, in the courts, in the media, in our own neighborhoods, looked at all of it and decided they were fine with it. Or worse, they decided they wanted to be a part of amplifying his assault on our country. The people who once claimed to believe in the Constitution, in checks and balances, in small government, in personal freedom, and now line up behind a man who renames memorials after himself, parades children like props in state-run athletic games, and rips healthcare away from trans kids to score points with extremists.

I’m disappointed, deeply, bitterly disappointed in my fellow Americans who see this happening and still say nothing. Who put their heads down and go about their daily lives while the government breaks itself apart. Who pretend they don’t see the pattern when they absolutely do, but choose to ignore it anyway because they just don’t care enough to stop it. And because everything Trump and his enablers are doing hasn’t quite caught up to them yet. It hasn’t hit their families, their jobs, their safety, their identity, at least not in the way it’s already hitting others. So they think they can look away. They think silence is neutral. But it’s not. It’s a decision. And that decision is exactly how authoritarianism spreads.

And I don’t know if it’s cowardice, greed, or just complete detachment from the America they say they love, but they are helping him. Every senator who confirmed RFK Jr. to lead HHS. Every board member who voted to rename the Kennedy Center. Every person who knows better but won’t speak up because they’re afraid of being uncomfortable. This isn’t just going to be Trump’s legacy. It’s going to be theirs too. And when the postmortem is written on this era, if we’re lucky enough to still have history books, the question won’t just be what Trump did. It’ll be why so many people let him. Why they turned their backs on democracy, on decency, on each other. Maybe they were promised power, relevance, or safety in exchange for their silence. But what they forget is that regimes like this don’t keep promises. They use people up. And once you’re no longer useful, they come for you, too.

But the truth is, no one is safe in a system built on fear. And if they think they’re going to be spared by the man who’s rewriting history and plastering his name in gold everywhere, they’ve learned nothing from the past. They’ve forgotten that by the time you realize you’re in too deep, it’s already too late.

Some days it’s exhausting to keep pointing at the fire while so many people pretend they don’t even smell the smoke. But we keep going. And even with all the chaos, cruelty, and distraction the Trump Regime is pulling, MAGA is breaking down. We’re getting closer to the midterms, and we will show them that they can’t keep doing this without consequences. We need to remind our friends and family who’ve gone quiet that there is safety in numbers, that there are more of us than there are of them, and we’re just getting started. I’m feeling more energized, and dare I say excited, for the challenges ahead. To right this ship. To help America finally deliver on the promises that were always there. Every single assault on our Constitution and our country pushes me to fight harder, speak louder, and organize more, and it gives me real hope for what’s still possible. I hope you can feel it too.

I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather

P.S. If you’ve made it this far, chances are we see things the same way. You can help keep this work going by subscribing to my Substack; there’s a free option, or you can become a paid subscriber for just $5 a month. Paid subscriptions help me reach more people, cover more ground, and keep telling the truth about what’s happening to our country.