The Kennedy Center: Fix it, don’t tear it down

Even for those who follow the news closely, it is hard to keep up with the daily outrages of the Trump administration. You hardly have time to consider the consequences of one before the next one hits you smack in the face.

Make your own list. Mine includes tearing down the East Wing of the White House; launching an inexplicable and apparently unwinnable war against Iran; reducing the size of Big Ears National Monument by 90 percent; turning Hains Point, one of Washington’s most popular public parks, into a multi-million dollar golf course; firing the Librarian of Congress for no apparent reason ; accusing the Smithsonian of focusing too much on “how bad slavery was”; exploiting the presidency to enrich himself by at least $2.2 billion in 2025 , according to official financial disclosures; and throwing CNN, MSNOW and Politico out of the White House .

But, of all of his outrages, none equals President Trump’s childish, petty, cruel attack on the Kennedy Center, which, in a temper tantrum worthy of a toddler, he threatens to shut down or tear down if he’s not allowed to put his name on it.

Stop! Think about that. This is not a toddler screaming he won’t eat his peas unless he gets ice cream first. This is the 80-year-old president actually saying he will tear down the iconic Kennedy Center unless he’s allowed to plaster his name on it. That’s like French President Emmanuel Macron promising to tear down the Eiffel Tower; Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Taj Mahal; or New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. It would be unthinkable, anywhere but here.

Which, of course, invites the question: What has Trump done to earn his name on the Kennedy Center? Nothing! Before coming to Washington, he was a New York builder, casino operator, golf course owner, and playboy. He was never a supporter or donor of the arts, unless you count the Miss Universe contest. During his first term, he only stepped foot in the Kennedy Center once. He did not attend the Kennedy Center Honors in 2017, 2018 or 2019. The 2020 awards were postponed because of COVID.

In 2025, after tearing down the East Wing, the Kennedy Center became what the New York Times’s Robin Givhan calls Trump’s “ most grotesque obsession .” He fired public members of the Kennedy Center Board and replaced them with loyal supporters, who in turn elected him chairman and then ordered Trump’s name added to the building facade. He named as head of the center loyalist Richard Grenell, who proceeded to empty it of most of its artwork in order to replace it with pieces selected by Trump.

Meanwhile, the Kennedy Center suffered. Performing artists cancelled. The Washington Opera decamped. Donors fled. Ticket sales plummeted. Finances cratered . Earlier this year, I attended a magnificent performance of “Porgy and Bess” — which played to a half-empty house.

But that didn’t stop Trump’s board from continuing to undermine the Kennedy Center. When a judge ordered that Trump’s name be removed from the building, they complied, but left up an ugly tarp covering the front of the Center. After a major storm, which flattened trees and caused major property damage throughout Washington, caused a section of ceiling plaster to fall, the board declared the entire Center unsafe, and vowed not to proceed with renovation unless the judge changed his mind and allowed them to rename it for Trump. Whereupon Trump simply shut it down.

Loss of the Kennedy Center would not just be a tragedy for residents of the Washington area, who would lose such a great showcase for music, dance, opera, theatre and film. It would be a mortal blow to one of America’s greatest examples of bipartisanship. Originally known as the National Cultural Center, it was conceived by Republican President Dwight Eisenhower and then championed by Democrat John F. Kennedy. Their wives were honorary co-chairs of the board. After Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Congress renamed the center and required it to operate as a living memorial.

“I look forward to an America that will not be afraid of grace and beauty,” President Kennedy once said. George Stevens Jr., co-creator of the Kennedy Center Honors, told me this week: “For over half a century, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has thrived as a bipartisan institution providing grace and beauty in the nation’s capital. The courts have spoken. The name Trump does not belong on our living memorial to a war hero, a martyred and revered president.”