Why is Trump so obsessed with the Kennedy Center? |
Workers affix signage adding President Donald Trump's name on the facade of the Kennedy Center in December 2025. | Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he will be shutting down the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for two years starting in the summer. Trump claims the shutdown, which comes after a series of high-profile boycotts and cancellations, will allow him to perform “Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding” that will make the Kennedy Center “the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World.”
It’s worth digging into why Trump has gone to such lengths to reimagine the Kennedy Center. While the Center is prestigious and a diplomatic asset, most presidents before Trump have been content to leave it to its own devices while they focus on more volatile political matters.
Trump, meanwhile, has fixated on the Kennedy Center ever since he got himself installed as chair last February in an unprecedented campaign. (US presidents have the right to appoint people to the Kennedy Center board, but none have ever served as chair, which is the person in charge of overseeing the Center’s finances, governance, and programming.). He has........