Amid Controversy, Trump to Close Kennedy Center for Two Years for Reconstruction

Just days after attending the premiere of Melania, the documentary on his wife, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he will close the cultural institution’s doors starting July for an approximately two-year renovation project.

But while Trump frames the Center’s closure on July 4 in honor of the country’s 250th anniversary as an improvement job, it follows a battering of cancellations by artists slated to perform at the venue, after the President upended the Center’s leadership and appended his name to the space last year. 

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Trump said on Truth Social that the decision to close temporarily came after a yearlong review with contractors, musical experts, arts institutions, and advisors. He added the closure was “totally subject to” approval of the Center’s board of trustees, most of whom he appointed and which elected him as chairperson about a year ago.

“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,” Trump posted. 

But Trump did not provide the extent of the dilapidation that warranted the shutdown nor the extent of the reconstruction needed, only citing that the “Construction of the new and spectacular Entertainment Complex” will begin on July 4. Trump added that financing has been secured for the project, and an undated “Grand Reopening” is expected after. 

Last year, the Center stayed open despite ongoing renovations, but Trump wrote in his latest social media post that without closure, “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.”

Richard Grenell, a staunch Trump loyalist appointed as the Center’s president, posted on X Sunday that temporarily closing the Center “just makes sense,” adding that “it will enable us to better invest our resources, think bigger and make the historic renovations more comprehensive.”

“Our goal has always been to not only save and permanently preserve the Center, but to make it the finest Arts Institution in the world,” Grenell added, thanking Trump for the decision as well as Congress for the $257 million it appropriated for the Center’s repairs and restorations in last year’s “Big Beautiful Bill” spending megapackage.

The venue started as a national cultural center, renamed in 1964 through a law that Congress passed and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed to serve as a “living memorial” for the assassinated President John F. Kennedy. The Kennedy Center publicly opened in 1971 and hosted a variety of art programs as well as the National Symphony Orchestra.

But when Trump returned to the White House in 2025, he booted out existing Center leaders and packed the board of trustees with his political allies, which turned off arts patrons. Artists ranging from Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda to comedian Issa Rae have since cancelled scheduled events at the Center, and high-profile stars have also severed ties, citing the leadership changes.

Trump invited more backlash—and a lawsuit—when, in December, the Center’s board voted to attach his name to the Kennedy Center. Rep. Joyce Beatty (D, Ohio) sued the President and the Center’s other board members, accusing them of violating federal law for changing the name without congressional approval. A few Kennedy family members also opposed the Center’s name change: Kerry Kennedy, a niece of John F. Kennedy, posted on social media, “Three years and one month from today, I’m going to grab a pickaxe and pull those letters off that building, but I’m going to need help holding the ladder. Are you in?”

In January, the Washington National Opera announced it was ending its 15-year formal affiliation with the Center, moving to operate independently and hold performances outside the venue following Trump’s takeover. Composer and piano virtuoso Philip Glass posted on social media the same month that “the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message” of his Symphony No. 15, and that he felt “an obligation to withdraw this Symphony premiere from the Kennedy Center under its current leadership.” Grammy-winning soprano Renée Fleming, a former artistic advisor-at-large of the Center, also canceled scheduled May performances.

The same month, the top official overseeing the Center’s artistic programming resigned less than two weeks into the job, without a clear explanation. His predecessor also stepped down in September.

The resignations and performer withdrawals indicate a growing discomfort with Trump’s drastic changes to the Center. Maria Shriver, another niece of the late John F. Kennedy, slammed the Center for adding Trump’s name in December, and warned that he could make similar changes to other historic institutions. The President has already demolished the White House’s East Wing for a ballroom and is pursuing the construction of a so-called Triumphal Arch.  

Shriver suggested on X Sunday that Trump’s decision to close the Kennedy Center for two years is a diversion amid the backlash his takeover has generated. “Translation: It has been brought to my attention that due to the name change (but nobody’s telling me it’s due to the name change), but it’s been brought to my attention that entertainers are canceling left and right, and I have determined that since the name change no one wants to perform there any longer,” Shriver said. “I’ve determined that due to this change in schedule, it’s best for me to close this center down and rebuild a new center that will bear my name, which will surely get everybody to stop talking about the fact that everybody’s canceling… right?”

But the closure also raised questions about where the National Symphony Orchestra would go, and what would happen to the Center’s personnel. Beatty, in a statement, bashed Trump for sidestepping Congress again, and she echoed that with artists “rejecting” the President’s takeover, the Administration appears to be “scrambling for cover.”

“Countless employees, artists, and others have existing contracts and agreements with the Center,” Beatty said. “What happens to them? Has Trump or his handpicked Board given any consideration to their livelihoods or futures?”

In a video posted to social media, Rep. Chellie Pingree (D, Maine) said that Trump has “destroyed” the Kennedy Center and the closure was Trump “covering up the financial disaster he’s created there” over his actions that discouraged performances and audiences.

But Pingree warned that, with how opaque the pending shutdown is to date, the Kennedy Center’s “temporary” closure for renovations might be a ruse for something more ambitious. “I fully believe that he’s just giving us a line of bullsh-t,” Pingree said, “that he will actually plan to tear it down, turn it into the Trump Center, and forget that it’s a living legacy to JFK.”