WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s effort to put his name on the Kennedy Center stands out against a longstanding American practice: Sitting presidents have rarely attached their names to public buildings and infrastructure, and when they have, the decisions have often stirred political disputes. Trump’s name was added to the Washington performing arts complex’s exterior in December 2025. A judge later ruled that only Congress could change the center’s name, and the Trump signage was removed less than six months after it went up. The center was established as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy. Trump has continued to press for the naming, warning reporters that the center could close if his name did not appear on it. His supporters have also floated putting his name on other public assets, including airports and naval ships. The historical record offers few close parallels. Lindsay Chervinsky, executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library, said presidents have generally avoided public self-celebration, in part because it can evoke the trappings of monarchy. That concern surfaced during George Washington’s administration, when Congress considered what images to place on the country’s first coins. The House of Representatives rejected putting the sitting president on currency, Chervinsky said. Washington himself, she added, “didn’t want a lot of fuss.” Still, the federal capital was named Washington while he was president. The distinction, historians say, is that public honors often were advanced by others rather than sought by the officeholder. The Hoover Dam offers a more complicated example. The project, initially called Boulder Dam, was renamed for President Herbert Hoover in 1930, during his administration. Hoover’s Interior Secretary Ray Lyman Wilbur proposed the change, citing Hoover’s role in negotiating the Colorado River Compact, which allocated water among seven states. Hoover appeared pleased, but did not publicly campaign for the honor, said Kenneth Whyte, author of a Hoover biography. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration later sought to restore the Boulder Dam name. Roosevelt’s Interior Secretary Harold Ickes argued that the original authorizing law used that name; political hostility toward Hoover also played a part, according to historian David Woolner. Congress voted unanimously in 1947 to restore the Hoover name, after the former president had received recognition for humanitarian work. The episode shows how naming public projects can become a proxy for political rivalry, as well as a question of who has the authority to decide. Presidents have sometimes lent their names to institutions they helped establish. Roosevelt initiated the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum during his presidency. Trump, meanwhile, has described plans for a future Miami presidential library that he said could include a hotel and a 747 aircraft in its lobby. The Kennedy Center dispute puts those traditions into sharp relief: Public landmarks carry civic meaning beyond the person currently in office, while decisions about their names can involve legal authority as well as political power.