Critics allege two-year closure is a ‘pretext’ for financial ‘death spiral’
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the living memorial to the 35th president on the banks of the Potomac River in Washington DC, closed its doors on Tuesday afternoon with barricades erected and security guards blocking access, according to the Guardian. The announcement over the public address system came just after 4:30 p.m.: “The centre is now closed to the public. Please exit the centre by way of the Hall of States.”
The closure follows an escalating standoff between the Trump administration and the federal courts over renaming the national memorial. US District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled on Tuesday that the Trump administration could not put a new Trump sign on the Kennedy Center’s facade or rename its plaza “without Congress’s blessing.” Hours later, the center’s Trump-appointed board voted to close the facility for two years, citing $257 million in repairs and renovations. Executive director Matt Floca ordered an immediate seven-day emergency closure, citing “acute risks to public safety resulting from continued structural deterioration.”
President Trump told reporters this week that if his name were not added to the venue, “it’s going to close. It’ll end up being ripped down.” On social media, he declared the venue “destined to doom” without his intervention. An Agence France-Presse photograph taken aboard Air Force One showed Trump holding a placard with red text reading “Kennedy Center DEMOLIS…” — the remainder obscured by the plane’s window frame — above an image of a yellow heavy construction vehicle scooping rubble.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the environment and public works committee and an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center board of trustees, told the Guardian the events represented three phases of Trump’s assault on the complex. “One is what I call the mob bust out gone wrong, in which they tried to take over and run the Kennedy Center, give themselves and their friends big contracts, charge expensive goodies to Kennedy Center accounts, do political favours using Kennedy Center facilities for Trump allies,” he said. “Then they moved into the renaming fiasco and that seems to have struck a lethal blow to the centre’s business model — a predictably damaging blow that they failed to consider at all. Now they’ve moved into a third stage in which they are threatening the actual destruction of the Kennedy Center if they don’t get their renaming.”
Representative Joyce Beatty and Whitehouse have alleged the closure is a “pretext” to hide a financial “death spiral” caused by artist boycotts and dwindling ticket sales. Whitehouse added that the trustees have a legal duty to put the welfare of the center first and that, “if they fail in that duty, they create a legal environment in which courts can and ultimately likely will step in to make sure that the centre is run lawfully.”
Whitehouse also drew a contrast between the administration’s rhetoric and legal reality. “There’s a contrast between the thuggery and bullying world in which you could countenance a threat to tear down the Kennedy Center if your name doesn’t go on it and the actual legal world in which actions have to be approved by a board that has a fiduciary duty to put the welfare of the institution first,” he said. “Those two are irreconcilable at this point.”
The Kennedy Center, a 100-foot structure that opened in 1971 with the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, has presented ballet, children’s theatre, comedy, contemporary dance, hip-hop, jazz, international festivals and educational programmes. The annual Kennedy Center Honors have hosted past presidents and a who’s who of US arts and culture. Rose Kennedy, the mother of the slain president for whom the center is named, said at the opening night gala: “Young people will come here and they will see this cultural centre. They will carry some of these ideas back to their different communities.”
Trump seized control of the facility in February 2025, claimed its finances were in dire straits, and fired board members who did not align with his “vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” the Guardian reported. Deborah Rutter, the center’s president, was replaced by Ric Grenell, a Trump loyalist and former ambassador with no experience in arts management. An initiative created in 2020 to promote anti-racism and community outreach was shut down and its 10-person staff dismissed; citing “drag shows specifically targeting our youth,” any programming perceived as “woke” was purged. It was a commercial disaster as audiences, performers and philanthropists deserted the centre in droves. In January, the Kennedy Center hosted the world premiere of “Melania,” a documentary about the first lady, with the Trumps in attendance.
The board’s renaming vote — to designate the venue the “Trump-Kennedy Center” — prompted Judge Cooper to rule that only Congress has authority to rename the memorial. Trump’s name was added to the exterior marble facade and later removed under court order; the area remains hidden by giant scaffolding and tarpaulins.
On Thursday, Judge Cooper issued an order requiring the Kennedy Center to give at least 30 days’ notice before making any major physical changes to the building, including demolition. Trump has no legal right to demolish the facility, which was established by Congress.
Trump previously ordered the demolition of the White House East Wing to make way for a ballroom, despite opposition from preservationists and questions over the administration’s authority to proceed without Congress. He is now threatening to cancel the renovation of the Kennedy Center and warning of its possible demise if his name is not restored to the building.
Kerry Kennedy, the former president’s niece, told the Guardian: “Like a child who can’t play with a toy, he wants to stomp on the toy. But this is not a toy. This is the living memorial to a slain president. It would be like adding the Trump name to the Trump-Lincoln Memorial or the Trump-Jefferson Memorial or Trump-Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The courts have spoken, he cannot demolish it, he cannot put his name on it and he should be focused instead on his job.” The Kennedy Center did not respond to requests for comment from the Guardian.
Norm Eisen of Democracy Defenders Action, who has litigated against the administration’s attempts to impinge on institutional independence, said: “He slapped his name on there and destroyed the lifeblood of the Kennedy Center: audience and artists.” Eisen added that Trump “appears to have developed an obsession because he’s not used to hearing the word no.”
The Washington Post reported on Friday that the Kennedy Center laid off about a dozen staff members. Michael Kaiser, who led the center from 2001 to 2014, warned that even a two-year closure will be damaging. “When you don’t have audiences and you don’t have donors participating for two years, those individuals go elsewhere,” he said. “When you have no staff, even if there’s a time in the future where we can return to a more sense of being normal, it’s not going to be so simple to reopen a building of this size and complexity.”
On Friday, Trump announced that CNN, MS Now and Politico would be banned from the White House and, with Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. standing behind him in the Oval Office, railed against the Kennedy Center again. Thousands of protesters gathered outside the venue that evening in view of the concealed marble facade. Speakers included a drag queen, and the crowd held signs reading “Keep your tiny hands off our Kennedy Center,” “You’re no Jack Kennedy,” “Our center not DJT’s” and “Wicked starring DJT.”
To Kerry Kennedy, who has worked in the human rights arena for 45 years, the president is a “petty tyrant.” Asked to consider the possibility of the Kennedy Center being lost, she reflected: “It would be devastating for my family because we love Uncle Jack but in the end Trump is not going to hurt my family. He is hurting our country and he’s hurting our world and he’s giving permission to tyrants everywhere to shut down arts centres and silence critical voices.”
Chris Raleigh, an organiser with the Hands Off the Arts movement, which is mobilising grassroots resistance, said: “That’s what you do when the hostage takers can’t get what they want. There comes a point where the hostage is inconvenient. Look at it: the people who have fought back have pushed Trump to the brink here. In no way at all is he winning. His name is not going up on the building.” Raleigh added: “Everyone in Trump’s life should be telling him: ‘You gotta get out now. This is not going to help you.’”