EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Mike Simpson wants the Kennedy Center to get a permanent Melania Trump makeover

Melania Trump could further secure her place in arts history, if Rep. Mike Simpson (R., Idaho) — one of the House GOP’s veteran appropriators — gets his way.

Simpson is living up to his billing as “MAGA Mike” with his latest move, exclusively obtained by the Washington Reporter. He wants the Kennedy Center, whose budget he oversees as Chairman of the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, to rename its Opera House after America’s First Lady.

“First Lady Melania Trump serves as the Honorary Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Kennedy Center,” Simpson told the Reporter. “Naming a theater after her is an excellent way to recognize her appreciation for the arts.”

“As Chairman…I am proud to honor her support and commitment in promoting the arts and humanities,” he added.

During the Appropriations Committee markup, Simpson took aim at the Democrats’ hypocrisy for criticizing the Trump administration’s alleged cuts to the arts, while opposing some of the funds for the Kennedy Center. “Let me see if I’ve got this straight, we’re upset that we didn’t fund the arts, but we’re upset that we did fund the arts,” he said with a chuckle.

For months, Simpson has noted that Ambassador Richard Grenell’s stewardship has righted the ship of state at the Kennedy Center.

One of Grenell’s initial priorities was rooting out diversity, equity, and inclusion programming at the center, a move that Simpson previously told the Reporter was long overdue.

Simpson’s move to rename the Opera House after the First Lady isn’t a surprise; he is a longtime advocate of renaming monuments after relevant Americans.

Closer to home, Simpson used his land management chops to name a vast protected area in Idaho after his home state’s former governor, Cecil Andrus.