Trump plans to close Kennedy Center for about two years, starting in July

[IronLionZion]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/02/01/kennedy-center-trump-closure-construction/
gift https://wapo.st/4a3L10Z
archive https://archive.ph/mteDH



President Donald Trump said Sunday that he plans to close the Kennedy Center for roughly two years to undergo construction. The proposal comes amid a series of cancellations and internal upheaval since he took over the storied institution nearly a year ago.

“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 wrote in a post on Truth Social. “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!”

Under Trump’s proposal, which he said is subject to board approval, the Kennedy Center could close on July 4, coinciding with America’s 250th anniversary, with construction beginning immediately.

“Financing is completed, and fully in place!,” Trump wrote. “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.”

His comments about crumbling disrepair and mismanagement is complete BS for anyone who has been there recently (like me). I've been going there for years. It's a lovely venue, or at least it was before he took over.

Maybe he'll put in stripper poles and cage fighting.

[Ray Bruns]

1. I didn't know it took two years to install stripper poles and dancing platforms.

[OldBaldy1701E]

2. No, he just wants the entire thing redone so that his name appears more than Kennedy's.

And to cover it all in cheap gold paint of course. 'Tacky' is his middle name, after all.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. Insider reveals Trump's 'absurd' Kennedy Center plan -- that aides scrambled to kill (taking the Kennedy name off center

trump really wanted to rename the Kennedy Center to the trump center. trump really wanted to take Jack Kennedy's name of the center and just has his own name. trump cannot stand sharing credit with anyone.

President Donald Trump's advisers stopped him from ripping John F. Kennedy's name off the Kennedy Center altogether, leaving the cultural hub simply called the Trump Center, his biographer said."Why does this have to be Kennedy?"

— Raw Story (@rawstory.com) 2026-02-06T18:00:18.860Z

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-kennedy-center-2675105563/

President Donald Trump's advisers stopped him from ripping John F. Kennedy's name off the Kennedy Center altogether, leaving the cultural hub simply called the Trump Center, his biographer said.

“Why does this have to be Kennedy?" the president apparently argued. "That was such a long time ago.”

Trump, 79, has substantially remade the Washington, D.C. performing arts institution in his image, taking control of its board, renaming it "The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts" without congressional approval, and announcing plans to close it for extensive renovations.

But writer Michael Wolff, who spent months inside the first Trump White House, told the Daily Beast that Trump's original proposal was far more ambitious. Wolff stated, "His first idea was to call this the Trump Center."

"I was almost assassinated," he said, according to Wolff. "Therefore, it should be me." Trump experienced two assassination attempts in 2024.

Trump's inner circle was able to persuade him away from the plan. Wolff said, "You can't say, 'This is a terrible idea. This is a megalomaniacal idea. This is not good politics.' You just cannot say any of that stuff to Trump. So instead, they said, 'Well, why don't we call it the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center?'"

After trump closes the Kennedy Center for two years, I would not be surprised to see the Kennedy name removed. Hopefully, trump will be gone before the two years are up