Barbra Streisand slams Trump’s ‘unchecked ego’ amid Kennedy Center naming row
Barbra Streisand (L) has called out Donald Trump’s (R) ‘unchecked ego’. (Getty)
Barbra Streisand has taken aim at US President Donald Trump and his “unchecked ego” as the row over whether his name can be added to the Kennedy Center rumbles on.
Stage and screen superstar Streisand, 84, shared a message on her website just hours after a judge ruled that Trump was legally prohibited from adding his name to the institution.
Trump announced this week that the famed arts institution would be shut down immediately for major renovations amid the legal battle over adding his name to the building.
“In 2008, I was deeply honored to be included in the 31st annual class of Kennedy Center Honorees,” Streisand wrote.
“For me, and for so many artists, that honor represented something larger than a career recognition. It represented a belief in the importance of art to the life of a democracy.”
The Funny Girl star continued: “That is why what is happening to the Kennedy Center is so galling and painful to witness.”
The legendary gay icon, who has been a vocal critic of Trump and named her 2018 album Walls in protest at the president’s rhetoric on immigration, added: “You can easily imagine my indignation at seeing this revered institution become the subject of such a bitter struggle over one man’s name and unchecked ego.”
The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, known as the Kennedy Center, is the considered the national cultural centre of the US.
In December 2025, the Kennedy Center board “voted unanimously” to rename the institution the Trump-Kennedy Center.
Trump’s name was added to the façade of the building, but was removed again after a judge’s ruling.
“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” US District Judge Cooper wrote on 29 May.
