President Donald Trump has angrily rejected a report that his administration considered attaching his name to Ford’s Theater, the Washington, D.C., playhouse where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, firing off a series of Truth Social posts that began the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026.
MS NOW reported that day, citing unnamed sources, that officials had raised the possibility of adding the president’s name to the site. It is unclear how the name would have been affixed, or how seriously the idea was entertained.
“The story that the White House, or me, want to affix my name to Ford’s Theater, in Washington, D.C., where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, is a ridiculous lie. It is FAKE NEWS! Who would possibly want a name on such a tragic place?” Trump wrote.
The president returned to the subject twice more the following morning, Thursday, Sept. 24, in posts timed at 7:15 a.m. and 8:20 a.m., again branding the account a fabrication and blaming CNN and MS NOW — an outlet he calls “MSDNC,” blending its previous name with the acronym for the Democratic National Committee.
What the Report Claimed
According to the report, administration officials routinely float the idea of naming buildings after the president as a way of getting on his good side. The administration also believes Ford’s Theater, which is owned by the Interior Department and maintained by the National Park Service, would be an easier target for a renaming than the Kennedy Center.
Trump, 80, is already seeking to have his name permanently added to the Kennedy Center as part of his MAGA rebrand of the capital. He shuttered the performing arts center for renovations, and some worry it may never reopen. Ford’s Theater has gone through numerous renovations since the Lincoln assassination.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle called the report “completely false,” saying it rested on anonymous sources.
A Democratic Strategist Weighs In
Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville said on his “Politics War Room” podcast that the idea flows from what he described as the president’s particular hatred for the capital. “He wants to destroy Washington,” Carville said, adding that Trump dislikes the city’s architecture and the modesty he associates with the Constitution that took effect in 1789.
A Widening Fight With the Press
The blowup landed in the middle of an escalating standoff between the White House and news organizations. On Sept. 18, Trump announced that CNN, MS NOW and Politico would be barred from the White House, accusing them of reporting fiction and lies. According to reports, the announcement came hours after aide Natalie Harp showed him videos of unflattering coverage. Secret Service officers took press passes from journalists at the three outlets on Saturday, Sept. 19.
The outlets sued Trump and several top aides on Sept. 21, alleging violations of the First Amendment and the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause. The Justice Department has argued the president may bar outlets on national security grounds and that White House access is a privilege rather than a right. Vice President JD Vance told Fox News that Trump is not banning outlets, but declining to grant special access to organizations he considers propagandists.
On Tuesday, Sept. 22, at the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, Trump told CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins that she should not be there covering him, after she asked about a new poll finding that two-thirds of Americans do not believe the U.S. is winning its war with Iran. A day earlier, four of the five networks in the television pool consortium — ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC — suspended pool coverage in solidarity with CNN.
On Sept. 24, U.S. District Judge Timothy James Kelly ordered the administration to temporarily reinstate the press badges. Kelly was appointed by Trump and in November 2018 ordered the White House to restore a reporter’s press pass. That same day, Chinese President Xi Jinping was received at the White House for a bilateral meeting and state visit; no major U.S. network aired live coverage of Xi’s arrival at the state dinner after the White House refused to let a CNN reporter cover it.
CNN Grounded, LindellTV Aboard
On Sept. 25, the White House announced that CNN would not be allowed aboard Air Force One. On Saturday, Sept. 26, Trump flew to Knoxville, Tenn., for the Tennessee-Texas college football game with the network replaced by LindellTV, the channel founded by Mike Lindell. In Truth Social posts that morning, the president questioned why outlets he accuses of peddling fake news should be allowed into the White House and complained that almost all coverage of him has been negative for years.
The White House has also launched its own streaming channel, Trump TV. Kelly’s order barring enforcement of the ban remains in place while the lawsuit brought by CNN, MS NOW and Politico moves forward; the networks resumed pool coverage on Sept. 25 but said they would decide day by day, and on Monday, Sept. 28, the outlets asked Kelly for a preliminary injunction to replace the order, which expires Oct. 8.
