Trump’s second-term branding blitz breaks with presidential tradition
President Donald Trump has spent the start of his second term stamping his name and likeness across Washington — from federal buildings to landmark links. Now he’s pushing to create a line of “Trump-class” Navy battleships.
The moves are raising eyebrows from historians, legal experts and political opponents. Can a sitting president rename government entities after himself, or is this practice breaking law and tradition?
Legality
When it comes to the president renaming public entities in his likeness, the legality depends on what it is.
“In general, the answer is no,” Bruce Schulman, history professor at Boston University, told Straight Arrow News. “The president does not have the authority without an act of Congress to, for instance, name battleships.”
When it comes to the battleships, Congress usually controls naming rights, and they often go to dead former presidents. Trump does not plan to name any of these newly commissioned ships after himself, just the class of ships.
“It hasn’t been done before by a living president, engaging in this naming of government entities after himself while he’s still alive,” Barbara Perry, presidential studies professor at the University of Virginia, told Straight Arrow News.
Then there’s the Kennedy Center, which now boasts the name, “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” across its facade. Trump did not unilaterally change the name but rather replaced the board of directors, who then changed the name.
However, Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, has filed a lawsuit claiming the board does not have that right either. Congress originally named the center after Kennedy following his assassination.
“Lyndon Johnson signed the legislation in January of 1964 to create the Kennedy Center as a memorial for a slain president,” Steve Gillon, senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, told SAN. “Only Congress can change the title of the Kennedy Center.”
Legal challenges have also come from Trump putting his face next to former president George Washington’s on 2026 National Park passes. The Center for Biological Diversity says federal law requires the pass to feature the winning photo of the National Park Foundation’s annual public lands photo contest.
That would be an image of Montana’s Glacier National Park.
Tradition
Questions of legality aside, Trump’s naming quest appears to break with the tradition set by previous commanders-in-chief over the last 249 years of American history.
“I can’t think of presidents naming things for themselves while they’re president,” Perry said.
SAN couldn’t find any example of a president naming a federal building after themselves, as Trump did with the Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute of Peace.
“Presidents have had things named after them, but almost always after they’re gone, after they’re dead,” Gillon said.
On the rare occasions when living former presidents have had federal buildings named after them, it’s been Congress who’s initiated and executed it.
For example, the Ronald Reagan Federal Building was named by congressional legislation in 1995. Plus, the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building got its name in 2013.
“It’s usual to name things after former presidents, especially former presidents who have deceased,” Schulman said. “It is all but unprecedented for presidents to name things after themselves.”
Along with everything mentioned previously, Trump has also put his name on Trump Gold Cards, Trump accounts and large banners draped across Washington, D.C. buildings.
Trump history
“This is a person that, throughout his career, has wanted to plaster the Trump name prominently on all kinds of different landmarks,” Schulman said. “Not only all of the buildings, but Trump University and Trump wines and Trump you name it.”
While no former president has made similar naming moves as Trump has, there’s never really been a president like Trump.
“We haven’t had an entrepreneurial president,” Perry said.
More than half of former presidents were lawyers. Dozens served in the military, while others were teachers, farmers, judges and more.
Notable exceptions include Ronald Reagan, who was famously an actor, and Harry Truman, who was briefly a haberdasher, meaning he sold men’s clothes.
Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and his son, George W., are also considered businessmen.
“The Bushes were in the oil business, but they didn’t found the Bush oil company,” Perry said.
Washington was a successful businessman before and after becoming America’s first president.
“[Washington] was very entrepreneurial in his plantation at Mount Vernon, and making whiskey and growing tobacco and all those things, which is how he got to be among the richest of the presidents,” Perry said. “But in modern entrepreneurship, in the real estate business, we haven’t had anyone like Donald Trump who is so wedded to branding.”
Trump Towers still stand in New York City and Chicago, as does the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.
“We should not be shocked,” Gillon said. “I think what is disturbing is how quiet Republicans are, including many conservatives who simply look the other way when he does these things. If Joe Biden had named a battleship after himself, Republicans would, for good reason, have gone ballistic.”
What comes next
It’s unclear what other entities the president could attempt to attach his name to.
Last month, Trump made it known he wants the new Washington Commanders stadium to bear his name.
Trump has three more years in office. What buildings and entities keep his name after his service may depend on his successor.
“If the successor is JD Vance or some person who sees themselves as kind of a legacy to the MAGA movement, they probably will keep most of those things,” Schulman said. “But you can imagine that if a Democrat succeeds him, that a lot of those things are going to come down.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a frontrunner for the Democratic ticket in 2028, made clear a Democratic president will immediately remove Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center.
“I would say that within hours of taking the oath of office, a Democrat will remove Trump’s name from every building, every ship, every anything that he has put his name on,” Gillon said.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
