President Donald Trump’s decision to close the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for “an approximately two year period of time” — which he announced via Truth Social on Sunday — underscores the profound damage he’s doing to this iconic institution.
Setting aside the sheer financial incompetence that led to this crisis, Trump’s callous disregard for the history, mission and legacy of the Kennedy Center should alarm every American.
And that includes members of the president’s party. I hope my colleagues across the aisle recognize that we must recoup the power the president has usurped from Congress. A good start would be working with Democrats to restore a cultural institution that was created for the benefit of all Americans, and named in honor of one president (not the current one).
The National Cultural Center was established by Congress in 1958, renamed in honor of John F. Kennedy shortly after his death, and opened to the public in 1971. For more than 50 years, it has celebrated artistic excellence, fostered creativity and reflected Kennedy’s steadfast belief that equitable access to the arts is essential to democracy.
Since taking office, President Trump has repeatedly demonstrated utter contempt for that mission and vision, treating the Kennedy Center not as a national trust, but as another institution to be bent to his personal vanity.
One year ago, Trump announced he was firing several members of the Board of Trustees and installing himself as chair. In the weeks and months that followed, the center’s programming was marred by sudden cancellations, behind-the-scenes political interference and growing concerns from artists about ideological litmus tests. By June, the effects of Trump’s hostile takeover were already being felt. According to reporting by The Washington Post, the center faced a 82% decline in theater subscriptions, a 57% drop for ballet packages and a $1.6 million decline in overall ticket sales.
Rather than see these numbers as a clear sign to reverse course, Trump and his loyalists have chosen to double down: attempting to name the center’s opera house after first lady Melania Trump, continuing to politicize its programming, and — most absurd of all — illegally renaming it the “Trump-Kennedy Center.” Now, he wants to close the center for two years while he makes “major renovations” — presumably without any input from Congress.
The Kennedy Center is a national cultural institution established by Congress, and is statutorily named the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. No board vote or social media post has the legal authority to change that without an act of Congress.
Considering it took less than 24 hours after the board “vote” for him to plaster his name on the building, and that he demolished the East Wing of the White House in a matter of days without proper approval or regard for historical significance, it’s entirely possible that he could decide to just bulldoze the entire center to remake it in his own, tacky image. Just look at what he’s done to the Rose Garden and the Oval Office.
Let’s be crystal clear: The Kennedy Center is a national cultural institution established by Congress, and is statutorily named the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. No board vote or social media post has the legal authority to change that without an act of Congress.
These are the facts. Any claim to the contrary — whether from Trump himself, or one of his far-too-many Republican enablers — is either a willful lie, or a staggering misreading of the law.
Dr. Charlotte Canning, the Frank C. Erwin Centennial Professor of Drama at the University of Texas at Austin, is one of the country’s foremost experts on the Kennedy Center. For her, Trump’s takeover underscores the stark contrast between what the center represents, and the president’s bizarre obsession with dictating the terms of cultural engagement.
“The Kennedy Center was designed to embody national unity, generosity and connection,” Canning explained. “Even before Kennedy’s assassination, the two parties recognized the Center as a venue for all Americans, reflecting the spirit and soul of the country. Its mission has always been about the common good, not individual aggrandizement.”
Sadly, Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center is part and parcel of a broader effort to politicize our cultural institutions, rewrite our shared history and cast himself as the indispensable centerpiece of the American story.
In just the past few months, Trump has renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace after himself; bulldozed the East Wing of the White House to make room for a $300 million vanity ballroom; draped several federal buildings with banners of his own face; and generally treated the federal government as an extension of his personal publicity machine.
And that’s before we get to the reckless — and often illegal — cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and countless other agencies that support education, art and culture — all because they don’t fit Trump’s narrow and twisted view of what these words mean.
But it’s his takeover of the Kennedy Center — one of our greatest cultural institutions and our only memorial in D.C. dedicated to JFK — that shows how far Trump is willing to go to bend our public institutions to his will.
Americans — including JFK’s family — are rightfully appalled by Trump’s garish and egomaniacal fixation on the Kennedy Center.
“The Kennedy Center’s programming and outreach are designed to include all Americans, and represent the country as broadly as possible,” Canning said. “These actions by the President directly undermine that mission.”
Americans — including JFK’s family — are rightfully appalled by Trump’s garish and egomaniacal fixation on the Kennedy Center. They are fed up that he keeps getting away with blatantly illegal actions and disgracing our historical and cultural institutions.
Congress has the power to fight back. We can and we must reassert the statutory protections that safeguard the center’s name and mission, and ensure that federal funding and governance support the institution’s original purpose rather than a partisan agenda. And we need Republicans to step up. Just because he has the unmitigated gall to act without consent of the law — or of the People’s House — doesn’t mean that whatever he says, goes.
The Kennedy Center is a living monument to a man who fervently believed in the emancipatory power of art and culture. It’s a legacy our current president clearly doesn’t understand — and has no right to usurp for himself.
I will do everything in my power to ensure he doesn’t.
