President Donald Trump, after affixing his name to Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and prompting multiple artists to cancel engagements at the famed arts center, said he has decided that the facility must be shut down for two years to undergo a “complete rebuilding.”
In a post Sunday on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the Kennedy Center will close on July 4, 2026, “in honor of the 250th Anniversary of our Country, whereupon we will simultaneously begin Construction of the new and spectacular Entertainment Complex.”
Trump said that financing is “completed, and fully in place!” for the overhaul of the facility.
“This important decision, based on input from many Highly Respected Experts, will take a tired, broken, and dilapidated Center, one that has been in bad condition, both financially and structurally for many years, and turn it into a World Class Bastion of Arts, Music, and Entertainment, far better than it has ever been before,” the U.S. president wrote. “America will be very proud of its new and beautiful Landmark for many generations to come. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
After his re-election to a second term as U.S. president, Trump ousted the Kennedy Center’s previous Democratic board members and management team and installed himself as chairman.
In December, the White House said the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees — handpicked by Trump — voted unanimously to rename the facility the “Trump Kennedy Center.” The full new name, which is in dispute, is “The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” Legal experts say the renaming of the center is illegal, because a 1964 federal law established its name as “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” and explicitly prohibits the board of trustees from adding any other name to the building.
Since the Trump Kennedy Center renaming was announced, multiple artists have canceled their scheduled performances at the center, including Philip Glass, Renée Fleming, “Wicked” composer Stephen Schwartz, Béla Fleck and a production of “Hamilton.” In another sign of turmoil at the Kennedy Center, live-entertainment veteran exec Kevin Couch resigned as the center’s head of artistic programming less than two weeks after his appointment was announced.
According to Trump, he made the decision to shut down and rebuild the Kennedy Center after a one-year review of the institution in collaboration with “Contractors, Musical Experts, Art Institutions, and other Advisors and Consultants.” The options were either shutting down the Kennedy Center completely before reopening it, or undertaking partial construction while continuing entertainment operations “through a much longer period of time, working in and around the Performances.”
“I have determined that The Trump Kennedy Center, if temporarily closed for Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding, can be, without question, the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World,” Trump said. “In other words, if we don’t close, the quality of Construction will not be nearly as good, and the time to completion, because of interruptions with Audiences from the many Events using the Facility, will be much longer. The temporary closure will produce a much faster and higher quality result!”
Trump continued, “Based on these findings, and totally subject to Board approval, I have determined that the fastest way to bring The Trump Kennedy Center to the highest level of Success, Beauty, and Grandeur, is to cease Entertainment Operations for an approximately two year period of time, with a scheduled Grand Reopening that will rival and surpass anything that has taken place with respect to such a Facility before.”