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“The Five” Star Blasts Celeb Over Kennedy Center-Fueled TDS Meltdown

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John F. Kennedy
Photo Credit: "President John F. Kennedy" by U.S. Embassy New Delhi is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/?ref=openverse.

The renaming of the Kennedy Center has triggered celebrity outrage and artistic boycotts as President Donald Trump’s decision to attach his name to the iconic arts institution continues enrage Hollywood.

The White House announced last week that the government-owned performing arts venue would officially become the Trump-Kennedy Center, a move that followed months of structural changes inside the organization.

Earlier this year, Trump removed several board members and replaced them with allies.

The new board then elected Trump as chair shortly after he announced on social media that he would assume the role.

Longtime Trump ally Richard Grenell was subsequently named interim executive director.

This month, the board formally approved renaming the venue “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

The decision coincided with Trump hosting the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony.

Well before the renaming became official, a former South Park writer quietly laid groundwork for what he described as a long-term satirical project.

Scott Morton, who worked on the animated series from 2001 to 2003, purchased the domain names trumpkennedycenter.org and trumpkennedycenter.com last August.

Morton said the purchases came after learning of Trump’s intentions regarding the center’s programming and leadership.

“As soon as Trump began gutting the Kennedy Center board earlier this year, I thought, ‘Yep, that name’s going on the building,’” Morton told The Washington Post.

“The rest followed on schedule,” he added, referencing Trump’s December move to formally rename the venue.

Morton said buying politically themed domain names and converting them into satirical websites has become a form of activism for him.

“The Kennedy Center has always been a cultural institution meant to outlast any one administration or personality. It’s meant to honor culture, not ego. Once it was treated like personal branding, satire became unavoidable,” he remarked.

Morton currently owns sites targeting Republican figures such as Rep. Nancy Mace and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in connection with potential 2026 campaigns.

He has also aimed his efforts at Democrats he views as ineffective against Trump, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Morton has also funded political billboards using his own money and small-dollar donations.

While the Trump-Kennedy Center domains remain inactive, Morton said plans are in place.

“It’ll absolutely reflect the absurdity of the moment. Lots of surprises. Some things are truly hard to parody, though.”

As Morton prepared satire online, entertainer Rosie O’Donnell delivered a fiery rant from Ireland, where she now lives.

In a video titled “Saturday Night Ramble,” O’Donnell began by reflecting on her Christmas celebrations before quickly turning her attention to Trump, declining to say his name and instead calling him “It.”

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♬ original sound – Rosie ODonnell

“The Kennedy Center debacle. It has gone too far. It is seriously unwell. It needs to be removed from office. It, the nameless blob of negative energy. It,” O’Donnell said.

She later escalated her rhetoric in a TikTok video by urging Trump’s removal through the 25th Amendment, which allows a vice president and cabinet majority to temporarily strip presidential powers if a president is deemed unable to perform official duties.

The remarks prompted a response from Kellyanne Conway during an appearance on “The Five.”

Conway addressed O’Donnell directly, saying, “Don’t you have anybody who loves you? You need a hug or a husband or a hobby or a hairy dog. Get yourself some help, because this woman, last week, she referred to Trump as a ‘blob.’ A slob calling someone else a blob.”

Conway added that relocating overseas had not softened O’Donnell’s rhetoric.

“By the way, she moved to Ireland, but she never moved on. And that’s a problem. I live with Trump derangement syndrome. It’s toxic, chaotic, and sometimes frightening,” Conway said.

“But I’ll tell you, a lot of Democrats don’t like it. They feel like they’re gonna get beat in 2028 if their only message is ‘Trump, Trump, Trump.’”

O’Donnell previously appeared on “The Best People with Nicolle Wallace,” where she admitted that even her therapist questioned the intensity of her feelings toward Trump and wondered why others did not share them.

Beyond online activism and celebrity reactions, Trump’s decision has also triggered tangible consequences within the performing arts community.

In early December, longtime jazz musician Chuck Redd announced he was canceling his Christmas Eve performance at the Kennedy Center.

“When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert,” Redd told The Associated Press.

Additional performers followed suit. The Cookers, a jazz septet scheduled for two New Year’s Eve performances at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, announced Monday they would no longer appear.

In a statement, the group said, “Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice.”

The statement continued, “Some of us have been making this music for many decades, and that history still shapes us. We are not turning away from our audience, and do want to make sure that when we do return to the bandstand, the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it.”

The band’s drummer, Billy Hart, later told The New York Times that adding Trump’s name to the center “evidently” factored into the decision to withdraw.

Similarly, Doug Varone and Dancers announced Monday that the New York-based dance company would not perform shows scheduled for April at the Kennedy Center.

Country singer Kristy Lee also withdrew from a planned Jan. 14 performance. In an Instagram post, Lee acknowledged the financial impact of canceling shows but cited personal principles.

“Canceling shows hurts” because they “keep the lights on,” she wrote, adding that “losing my integrity would cost me more than any paycheck.”

“When American history starts getting treated like something you can ban, erase, rename, or rebrand for somebody else’s ego, I can’t stand on that stage and sleep right at night,” Lee continued.

“America didn’t get built by branding. It got built by people showing up and doing the work. And the folks who carry it don’t need their name on it, they just show up.”

Grenell responded to the wave of cancellations by attributing the bookings to prior leadership.

“The artists who are now canceling shows were booked by the previous far left leadership,” Grenell wrote in a social media post Monday.

“Their actions prove that the previous team was more concerned about booking far left political activists rather than artists willing to perform for everyone regardless of their political beliefs.”

He added, “Boycotting the Arts to show you support the Arts is a form of derangement syndrome. The arts are for everyone and the left is mad about it.”

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