Trump’s obsession with renaming institutions does more than feed his ego: scholar

U.S. President Donald Trump participates in NORAD Santa tracker phone calls, on Christmas Eve, from the Mar-a-lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., December 24, 2025. REUTERS/Jessica Koscielniak

MAGA Republicans and right-wing media figures often attack liberals and progressives for obsessing over language, whether it's saying "unhoused" instead of "homeless" or using "Latinx" instead of "Latino." And not everyone who has that complaint is on the right: veteran Democratic strategist James Carville, "Real Time" host Bill Maher and Sen. Rubén Gallego (D-Arizona) are all disdainful of the term "Latinx," and Maher argues that progressives should spend less time on language-policing and more time "getting s--- done."

But President Donald Trump is obsessed with language as well, from demanding that reporters call the Gulf of Mexico "the Gulf of America" to renaming the U.S. Department of Defense the "War Department" to renaming Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center —which now has a sign that reads "the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts."

The Kennedy Center renaming is drawing a strong rebuke from Trump's critics, who view it as both goofy and narcissistic. But Austin Sarat, a professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College in Massachusetts, believes that Trump's "renaming binge" is much more than buffoonish — it's outright dangerous.

In an op-ed published by The Hill on December 29, Sarat warns, "Before you know it, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport may become Donald J. Trump International Airport. The city's metro system may become the 'Trump Train.' I think more is at stake here than a mere effort to feed the president's ego. The renaming project is very much in keeping with what strongmen do when they take power."

Sarat argues that it's important to defy Trump and continue to use the names he wants to change.

"So, let's not meekly acquiesce," Sarat writes. "In our daily conversations, let's continue to refer to The Kennedy Center by its proper name. Newspapers and other media outlets will have to decide whether to comply or refuse to fall in line. That is what the Associated Press did when it said it would continue calling the Gulf of Mexico by that name, even after the president's January 20 executive order renaming it 'Gulf of America.' It reminded readers, 'The Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years,' and no president can undo that history with the stroke of a pen."

Austin Sarat's full op-ed for The Hill is available at this link.

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