One of the first things Donald Trump did last year was take over the Kennedy Center. He fired or pushed out the existing board and installed MAGA dumbasses. He tried to remake the Kennedy Center into his own personal fiefdom, and then he “renamed” it as the Trump-Kennedy Center. Almost all of the scheduled performers and visiting artists/composers pulled out of their planned Kennedy Center events. Trump was left with an empty husk of what the Kennedy Center was supposed to be, because everything he touches turns to cultural dust. Well, Trump is furious. So he’s decided to shut down the Kennedy Center for two years.
The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington will close for roughly two years to allow for extensive renovations, President Donald Trump said Sunday. Trump, who is also chair of the newly rebranded Trump Kennedy Center, said on social media he determined that the closure, slated for July 4, “will produce a much faster and higher quality result” as he seeks to rebuild the complex. Trump said the move is pending approval by the center’s board, whose members were picked by the president.
“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,” he said, adding that financing is “fully in place.”
The president’s announcement comes as the nation’s preeminent performing arts center contends with a flood of cancellations that began soon after the board added the president’s name to the complex. Most recently, award-winning composer Philip Glass withdrew the June world premiere of his symphony based on Abraham Lincoln.
Mark my words: this is going to end up like the White House East Wing. Trump is going to end up tearing down the Kennedy Center before all is said and done. This repulsive man cannot stand to look so foolish, so he’s just going to rip it all to shreds like he did with the East Wing and the Rose Garden and the country. He’s absolutely demented, but it’s more than that. Even in the throes of his dementia, he understands that by putting his grubby little fingers all over the Kennedy Center, he’s devalued it. He wanted the cultural cachet of the Kennedy Center and he thought he would have that cachet if he just installed his dinosaur ass in there. That’s not the way it works.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
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- Draw for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, WM, Weltmeisterschaft, Fussball U.S. President Donald Trump dances to the final performance of the Village People during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Official Draw at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on December 05, 2025 in Washington, DC. WASHINGTON DC United States Copyright: xWilliamxVolcovx,Image: 1056800909, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/William Volcov/Avalon
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- Draw for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, WM, Weltmeisterschaft, Fussball U.S. President Donald Trump dances to the final performance of the Village People during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Official Draw at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on December 05, 2025 in Washington, DC. WASHINGTON DC United States Copyright: xWilliamxVolcovx,Image: 1056800977, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/William Volcov/Avalon
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- Pokal des neueingeführten FIFA Friedenspreis, der an US-Präsident Donald Trump geht und von FIFA Präsident Gianni Infantino übergeben wird. Trump nimmt sich bei der Zeremonie einfach die Medaille und hängt sie sich um – Washington 05.12.2025: Weltmeisterschafts-Auslosung 2026, World Cup 2026 Final Draw, John F Kennedy Center *** Trophy of the newly introduced FIFA Peace Prize, which goes to US President Donald Trump and is presented by FIFA President Gianni Infantino Trump simply takes the medal at the ceremony and hangs it around his neck Washington 05 12 2025 World Cup Draw 2026, World Cup 2026 Final Draw, John F Kennedy Center,Image: 1056804152, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Marc Schueler/Avalon
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- US Präsident Donald Trump hat das Los der USA gezogen – Washington 05.12.2025: Weltmeisterschafts-Auslosung 2026, World Cup 2026 Final Draw, John F Kennedy Center *** US President Donald Trump has drawn the US lot Washington 05 12 2025 World Cup Draw 2026, World Cup 2026 Final Draw, John F Kennedy Center,Image: 1056817293, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Marc Schueler/Avalon
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- Washington, DC United States President Donald J. Trump makes remarks as he awards 2025 Kennedy Center Honorees with their medallions during a presentation ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC. The honorees this year include country music artist George Straight, actor Sylvester Stallone, members of the rock band Kiss, actor Michael Crawford, and singer Gloria Gaynor. Pictured: Donald J Trump BACKGRID USA 5 DECEMBER 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DC United States President Donald J. Trump makes remarks as he awards 2025 Kennedy Center Honorees with their medallions during a presentation ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC. The honorees this year include country music artist George Straight, actor Sylvester Stallone, members of the rock band Kiss, actor Michael Crawford, and singer Gloria Gaynor. Pictured: Donald J Trump BACKGRID USA 5 DECEMBER 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DC Celebrities attend Amazon MGM’s “Melania” World Premiere at The Trump Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Pictured: President Donald Trump, Melania Trump BACKGRID USA 29 JANUARY 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DC Celebrities attend Amazon MGM’s “Melania” World Premiere at The Trump Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Pictured: Donald Trump BACKGRID USA 29 JANUARY 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
This is such abuser behavior: If I can’t have it, I’m going to destroy it so nobody can have it.
and he’s going to make his victims (the taxpayers) pay for it – literally
You can have all the money in the world and yet that can’t buy you class, culture, integrity, respect, intelligence or happiness. The Trump family and his entire sycophant administration are examples. Sigh. What kind of world class talent is the Center looking for? I thought we got that from Kid Rock, Morgan Wallen and Nicki Minaj. Get them to perform at the Center.
By the time the Kennedy Centers-hostage is released, the nation won’t even recognize it. Trump will do such a make-over on it. He’s not satisfied by the artists’ wholesale rejection of him, so now he’s going to do more than just put his name above JFK’s, there will be gold fixtures, there will be chandeliers, there will be all sorts of unnecessary adornments — all paid for by reluctant taxpayers, of course. But, in the meantime, the message will be clear, “If trump can’t have the Kennedy Center, then nobody can.” And it’s only year 2.
His PR people and the press are cleaning up what he said. He did not say “renovation.”
He said: “reconstruction.”
Conveniently leaving out the word ‘demolition’ which has to come first.
When this guy is outta power or dies, I hope it goes back to its original name bc there are too many talent artist who will never ever perform in it with its current name.
Which is why he’ll most likely have it either demolished and turned into a UFC arena or something.
He said “reconstruction.” He’s putting a wrecking ball through it and he has no authority to do so.
I’m holding out hope that whatever is built in its place will be functional? And then renamed.
It’s still the Kennedy Center. Congress would have to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Center for that to be official.
And where the hell is Congress (she asks for the zillionth time)? He doesn’t own the Kennedy Center. And it was extensively renovated in 2019.
You mean, the Congress currently held by the Republican party? Hm, don’t know.
Really? It was renovated in 2019, during trump’s own administration??? Did he forget?!
He’s just embarrassed that he can’t get world class talent to perform there so shutting it down avoids the stream to stories about performers refusing to go there.
That vagineck is really something.
There are more than twice the people in concentration camps in the US right now than the nazis held in 1939 in their own concentration camps, just before the start of WW2. And now they have the audacity to kidnap Native Americans and put them in those camps.
What also saddens me is what Putin and the Heritage Foundation, as well as the Epstein class, through DT, are doing to history, historical structures, etc. not to mention the erasure of Black history, Latino history, Native American history. As for this building he will destroy it.
The US is under attack by foreigners alright. Just not the ones Fox News manufactures outrage about.
That blowhard is on a mission to wipe anything connected to Kennedy off the face of the earth. First, his plans in his first term to alter the design of Air Force One, which thankfully didn’t happen then but he’s going for that again with the plane he was “gifted.” Then the first attack on the Rose Garden in the first term, followed by the second attack on the Rose Garden this term and the total annihilation of the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, a second garden she designed that Lady Bird named for her, which was bulldozed along with the East Wing, and now his plot for “reconstruction” of the Memorial and Performing Arts Center. He has no jurisdiction to touch anything that is not at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Ring Mike Johnson’s phones at all his offices off the hook.
He had no jurisdiction to destroy the East Wing either, but he did. However, Washingtonians couldn’t get onto the grounds to protect the East Wing. The JFK Center is public. It will be protected from any and all bulldozers by lines of people twenty deep.
If he had a contest with himself to see who was most idiotic he’d still win
🤣 it’s true!
I HATE him, with the power of 10,000 suns I HATE him.
You…me…SAME 🤬…also the majority of #SCOTUS …every voter who voted for him in 2024…and the folks who voted for 3rd parties all 58 years of my life along with folks who don’t vote at all 💔🇺🇸💔
So to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday, he’s just going to tear down the Kennedy Center which, btw, was established by Congress to honor a president who was assassinated. I realize we have more important things to do rn, but can’t somebody go to court and get a tro? We keep letting him do illegal things and normalizing his megalomania.
I knew he’d destroy so much but he’s finding even new things to demolish. I have such wonderful memories of the Kennedy Center and he just wants to destroy all of it.
He hates the Kennedys so much, I don’t understand it. Strength to Caroline, and all the normal nieces and nephews. He’s insane. He hates all of us and wants to destroy everything that is good and joyful.
May every single person who wanted this and enables it never know peace.
Someone, please stop this man.
The Kennedy Center just underwent a $250M renovation that was completed in 2019. This is just beyond ridiculous.
Baby, he has found his next money laundering pit. Gonna demolish the building with his new set contractors and then not pay them too. MESS.
It’s so obvious that he’s been using his presidency to fund and inflate his assets. But noooooo, the biracial lady as president would’ve been too much *insert eyeroll here*
Agreed. He said he’s already secured the funding which means he’s already accepted the bribes. They may get as far as bulldozing the building but then we’ll see nothing go up in its place. Have we seen any action on the East Wing? Is it still being held up in courts for no environmental review, etc.?
The blingtastically hideous Arc de Trumpe he’s got planned is even worse. Trump as king? King Charles would never get away with unilaterally deciding to demolish a large part of a historic public building like Buckingham Palace for a ‘ballroom’, or sticking an effing arch in Trafalgar Square. It’s utterly ridiculous that this vandalism goes unchecked.
I don’t even want to know why. He steals and ruins everything he touches.
This is a side-note, but I just read that while Musk was at Social Security as DOGE, millions of social security numbers went into a cloud. The purpose(?) was to see how much voter fraud went on during the last election. It was a very small article and I don’t know if it’s being hidden or not, but what Musk did was illegal (as is everything this fucking administration does), immoral and self-serving. This shit show is just being discovered and investigated now. Trump and all his underlings are a walking crime wave.
I would vote to raise my taxes and tear down EVERYTHING he has “remodeled” once his cursed term is over and done.
You know how there’s that bit at the end of your 1040 form, where if you have a refund coming they ask if you want to donate to the election fund, etc? I want to have a place where, when I pay taxes, I can mark a box to designate where my money goes–I want kids to get the food they need, I want people to get the health care they need, I want schools to get the money they need, and I do NOT want my money going toward concentration camps, ICE/CBP, Kristin Noem’s costumes, etc.
I’m sure we’ll wake up soon one day to find a bulldozer has taken down half the Kennedy Center already. You know it’s going to happen. What’s next? The MLK Jr memorial? The FDR memorial?
Hoping he won’t make it to July or even next week.
He’s such a horrible person, not even the Devil wants him.
Speaking of dinosaur ass, I’m not surprised that he’s trying to put his name on everything. Expecting him to name a street, ballroom and all the National Parks after himself. Good grief—maybe even the entire White House. I am shocked that he hasn’t erected statues, busts and relief art of his stupid dinosaur ass face all over the WH, Washington, along The Great Wall of America, and the entire USA.