President Donald Trump’s heavy-handed management of the Kennedy Center has drawn criticism and negative responses from patrons, artists and even members of President John F. Kennedy’s family. Now, as backlash to Trump’s management of the center continues, the president has announced that he’s shutting down the institution altogether for most of the remainder of his term.
Trump announces a two-year shutdown for the Kennedy Center after a year of controversial changes
Trump announced his decision to close the Kennedy Center in a social media post on Sunday. Referring to the institution as the Trump Kennedy Center after a controversial and legally invalid name change, the president claimed to close the center for renovations. He framed his decision as a practical one, claiming that the repairs and improvements to the center would be quicker and more extensive if work didn’t have to be scheduled around performances. Based on this rationale, Trump said, “The Trump Kennedy Center will close on July 4th, 2026,” and “cease Entertainment Operations for an approximately two year period of time.” He didn’t specify what type of work would be done to the building, but described the plan as “Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding.”
Trump’s announcement is the latest in a host of major changes he’s made to the Kennedy Center since he returned to the White House last year. Early in his current term, Trump replaced a number of the organization’s board members with loyalists, who in turn made Trump chairman of the organization. This move led to celebrities like Shonda Rhimes and Issa Rae withdrawing their connections from the center. Since then, Trump micromanaged last year’s Kennedy Center Honors event, vetoing “woke” performers from receiving the honor and personally hosting the broadcast, which plunged in ratings when later broadcast on television. Perhaps most controversially, the Trump-appointed board added Trump’s name to the center, which members of the Kennedy family condemned and legal experts say violated the law.
Trump’s Kennedy Center changes draw criticism, backlash
Trump’s moves have drawn significant backlash, and several artists have pulled out of performing at the Kennedy Center, including entertainers for the center’s annual Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and Martin Luther King Jr. Day events. Trump didn’t reference backlash in his announcement that the Kennedy Center would close, but others have placed the move in the context of performers pulling out of events at the center.
“The Kennedy Center has been in continuous operation for 55 years. Trump and Ric Grenell destroyed it in one year by making it so toxic that nobody will perform there,” MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Now they have to shut it down like a Trump casino.”
“It was probably difficult to foresee that Trump would put the Kennedy Center out of business,” Filipkowski said sarcastically in another post with a graphic presenting a “List of Some of Trump’s Failed Businesses.”
Meanwhile, former Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass., posted about the closure of the center named after his granduncle, saying, “While this trespass on the People’s will is painful, President Kennedy would remind us that it is not buildings that define the greatness of a nation. It is the actions of its people and its leaders.”
After a host of controversial changes to the Kennedy Center that have led to significant public backlash, Trump is now shutting down the organization altogether. Although he’s presented the move as a temporary measure to improve the Kennedy Center, many see it as the latest step by Trump to undermine and ruin a long-standing national institution.