President Donald Trump continue pushing to reshape the Kennedy Center, including an attempt at renaming and touting Trump-branded upgrades. Now, a writer from the long-running animated adult comedy show “South Park” has stepped in with a quieter but pointed move: buying up domain names tied to the Trump-associated version of the arts institution.
According to Variety, the writer purchased multiple web domains referencing the “Trump Kennedy Center,” preempting what many observers assumed would become part of a broader branding effort. The move comes amid Trump’s recent public fascination with leaving his mark (and name) on the cultural landmark, including a Truth Social post boasting about “marble armrests” he described as “unlike anything ever done or seen before.”
One domain (trumpkennedycenter.org) leads to a satirical landing page, underscoring the ironic twist of the acquisition. Visitors to the site are greeted with playful messaging that lampoons the president’s recent efforts to brand the cultural institution, turning what was intended as a symbol of prestige into a public punchline — all without anyone breaking or circumventing the law.
The domain purchases themselves are legal and relatively inexpensive, but they highlight how quickly political branding battles now spill into the digital space. While Trump allies focus on symbolic gestures like names, materials and aesthetics, critics have questioned whether such efforts reflect a deeper interest in arts funding or governance.
The involvement of a “South Park” writer adds an extra layer of irony. The long-running animated series has built its reputation on skewering American politics and cultural excess and has been quite blunt in its satire of the current administration. While the domain purchase appears to be a private action rather than an official campaign, the association underscores how the Kennedy Center dispute has become fodder for satire almost by default.
Start your day with essential news from Salon.
Sign up for our free morning newsletter, Crash Course.
The episode also illustrates how culture-war skirmishes increasingly play out online, where control over names and domains can matter as much as official decisions. Several lawsuits are in process to challenge the legality of altering the landmark’s name. For now, at least, the Trump-linked Kennedy Center exists more in web addresses and social media posts than in official policy.
Whether the further domains will be used, redirected or simply held remains unclear. What is clear is that even the fight over a performing arts institution now includes a digital land grab, and the punchline arrived before the branding rollout did.
