CNN Panel Erupts Over Kennedy Center Name Change, Pro-Trump Pundit Draws Fire

A heated on-air discussion on CNN's Saturday Morning Table for Five centered on President Donald Trump’s involvement in the Kennedy Center name change, after a pro-Trump panelist defended the move. Comic Paul Mecurio called it "incredibly disrespectful to JFK," arguing that he was a commander in chief who served his country and that altering the Kennedy Center’s name would be comparable to changing names on the Vietnam Memorial. The debate quickly broadened into questions about the appropriateness of politicizing a cultural institution and whether the Kennedy Center should bear the name of a living president alongside its founding names.

The Federalist’s Brianna Lyman, an election correspondent, argued that criticism from Democrats is "disingenuous" — even though Trump himself helped select board members who voted for the so-called Trump-Kennedy Center name change. "I personally don’t care that much," Lyman said. "But I do find it funny, Paul, that you care and that the Kennedys care, because no one in your party cared in 2020 when you guys were changing names of hospitals, parks, schools, streets, everything in the name of George Floyd." Mecurio interrupted to note he isn’t even a Democrat, but Lyman barreled on.

Lyman urged the panel not to "pretend" that they care about Trump taking charge, prompting broadcaster and fellow panelist Cari Champion to jump in. "Well, first thing, you refer to 2020 in the name of George Floyd," she told Lyman, saying that the nationwide protests in question weren’t just about Floyd and his death at the hands of Minneapolis police, but about police brutality in general, which has historically affected Black Americans more than others. Lyman interrupted to reiterate that the protests "were about" Floyd, but Champion persisted. "Please let me finish because I let you finish," said Champion, the lone Black panelist on the show. "They had a racial reckoning and they understood that this country had done some things that were very unfair, especially to marginalized, especially to Black people."

When Champion noted that many statues removed in 2020 had commemorated former slave owners as heroes, Lyman countered that Presidents Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were among those perceived as heroes. Champion explained that many statues were removed to honor those "who could not speak for themselves." Lyman countered that Champion is "speaking freely about people like Jefferson" right now — and then thanked Jefferson for the First Amendment. Champion then refocused on the larger question: the country’s approach to memorials and names. "The reality is that they may have overcorrected, but right now they’re overcorrecting in another way," she said. "The fact that Trump is putting his name on every single thing and you want to normalize it like it’s normal tells me you’re the problem and not the solution." She also invoked Kennedy’s niece Maria Shriver to state that the moment isn’t funny anymore and warned that America could reach an irrevocable "state of disrepair" if Trump continues to press the pattern. The exchange highlighted a broader cultural and political fault line over how to treat legacies tied to prominent figures in public life.

The segment captured a broader national debate over political naming and memorial choices in major cultural institutions. While no final decision about the Kennedy Center’s branding was resolved on air, the discussion underscored how memories of 2020 and the subsequent reckoning over race, policing, and public monuments continue to shape conversations about who is honored—and how—in American cultural spaces.