South Park writer Toby Morton has revealed that he bought the Trump-Kennedy Center domain names months ago to troll US President Donald Trump.
READ MORE: The 20 best TV shows of 2025
Back in February, the US President was elected as chairman of the centre. He announced his plans to change the venue’s programming and remove several members of the board of trustees. He also told reporters at the time he would put an end to what he viewed as “woke” productions taking place.
Then, earlier this month, the board that presides over the Washington D.C. arts centre, which is closely allied with Trump, voted to rename the building as the Trump Kennedy Center.
Now, Morton has revealed that he predicted the name change and bought the rights to both trumpkennedycenter.org and trumpkennedycenter.com back in August.
“As soon as Trump began gutting the Kennedy Center board earlier this year, I thought, ‘Yep, that name’s going on the building,’” Morton told the Washington Post. “The rest followed on schedule.”
Morton didn’t reveal how he plans to use the domains he purchased, but teased, “It’ll absolutely reflect the absurdity of the moment. Lots of surprises. Some things are truly hard to parody, though.”
“The Kennedy Center has always been a cultural institution meant to outlast any one administration or personality,” he added. “It’s meant to honour culture, not ego. Once it was treated like personal branding, satire became unavoidable.”
While the writer said he hasn’t been contacted by the Trump administration asking to buy the domains from him, he shared that he has gotten inquiries from “a few random lawyers confidently explaining that satire is illegal now.”
Earlier this year it was reported that the producers of the musical Hamilton had cancelled their production at The Kennedy Center, due to Trump taking control of the venue, while in June, Trump was greeted by drag queens and booed during his first visit to the Center since installing himself as chairman.
The president of the Kennedy Center is currently seeking $1million from musician Chuck Redd, who cancelled a Christmas Eve show over the building’s name change.
Elsewhere, Jimmy Kimmel delivered a scathing anti-Trump alternative Christmas message for UK viewers on Channel 4 this week, saying: “from a fascism perspective, this has been a really great year”.
Meanwhile, South Park has made headlines this year for poking fun at the President throughout their latest season. Storylines have depicted him in a relationship with Satan, having a micro penis, and having sex with Vice President J.D. Vance. All new episodes of South Park can be viewed on Paramount+ in the UK.
South Park landed at Number 14 in NME‘s roundup of the 20 Best TV Shows of 2025. The entry read: “In an unpredictable world, it’s reassuring to know that The Simpsons is still around, but no-one’s claiming the show is at the height of its powers. South Park, on the other hand, has been firing on all cylinders this year. When you elicit a damning response from the actual White House, whose spokesperson slammed Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s animation as “uninspired” after they depicted a micro penis-possessing Trump in bed with Satan, you know you’ve done your job as satirists.
“With American talk shows being hobbled after criticising the President, this sort of silliness is more important than ever. Is it big? Like Trump’s knob in the show (and allegedly in real life), it is not. Is it clever? Like anyone moaning about South Park being politicised (another idea sent up this series): no. But it is extremely funny – not bad for a show that premiered almost three decades ago.”
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