- Amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s many efforts to place his name and image on various sites and items, the claim that Trump or his aides were considering attaching his name to the historic Ford’s Theatre — where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 — circulated online in September 2026.
- The rumor stemmed from an MS NOW article from Sept. 23 that cited “people familiar with the effort” without naming the protected sources.
- As of this writing, we have yet to find publicly available evidence confirming the report.
This lack of conclusive information does not make the rumor true or false. Rather, it means that no further information that would allow us to rate the claim currently publicly exists. - White House spokesperson Davis Ingle criticized MS NOW and told Snopes, “This story is completely false.” A spokesperson for the Interior Department added, “This is not true.” We also emailed MS NOW for further comment. We will update this article with any potential future developments.
In September 2026, a claim circulated online alleging officials associated with U.S. President Donald Trump, or Trump himself, were considering attaching his name to Washington, D.C.’s historic Ford’s Theatre — the site of former President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865.
For example, on Sept. 23, a popular X post (archived) began, “BREAKING: HELL NO! Trump officials are scheming to slap his name on Ford’s Theatre — the playhouse where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.”
(@OccupyDemocrats via X)
Additionally, users shared the rumor on Bluesky (archived), Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived) and TikTok (archived).
One Snopes reader emailed us the text from the above-pictured X post and inquired, “Is it true?” Another reader, and some of the users making the posts that we linked above, also cited an MS NOW article from Sept. 23 headlined, “Trump aides explore attaching president’s name to Ford’s Theatre.” That reader asked,” Is Trump really thinking about putting his name on Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC?” A third reader asked a similar question, sharing a different article with the headline, “Trump Now Seriously Considering Slapping His Name on Ford’s Theater.”
In sum, as of Sept. 23, we have yet to find publicly available evidence confirming Trump or his aides are planning to add his name to Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site.
The authors of the article on MS NOW, which first reported the matter, began by saying that “administration officials are circulating a list of government sites that could have his name affixed to them in some way,” including Ford’s Theatre. In other words, the reporting said a list featured Ford’s Theatre as one of a number of sites under consideration for adding Trump’s name.
The MS NOW reporters did not name their protected sources, instead citing them as “Trump aides” and “people familiar with the effort.” The reporting also said, “It is unclear how seriously the theater is being considered or how the administration would attach Trump’s name to it,” citing one purported unnamed administration official as telling MS NOW the idea had been discussed but didn’t know where it stood.
Laura Barrón-López, one of three people listed as authors for MS NOW’s article, said on the MS NOW cable TV channel that the unnamed sources provided the information to her, the other two authors and their colleagues. We emailed MS NOW to request further comment.
The MS NOW story quoted White House spokesperson Davis Ingle as saying, “This story is completely false,” as well as an Interior Department spokesperson saying, “This is not true.” We independently confirmed both statements. (The National Park Service, a federal government agency under the Interior Department, manages the historic site.)
Over email, t
We emailed Ford’s Theatre to ask about the story, including inquiring if officials working at the theater had received any information about Trump’s name being added to the site, and will update this story if we receive a response.
Searches of the Ford’s Theatre website and social media pages, as well as basic queries of DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo, among other research points, found no further information about this matter.
As MS NOW’s article noted, the alleged consideration of adding Trump’s name to the theater came to light amid Trump’s ongoing pursuit of attaching his name to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, among other numerous other efforts to add his name and face to U.S. passports, banners on federal buildings and other governmental designations.
We will update this article with any potential future developments.
For further reading, we previously reported about whether a 19th-century photographer truly captured a photo of Lincoln’s ghost.
