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Trump administration asks a federal judge to close the Kennedy Center for two years
September 20, 2026
The administration asked a federal judge to let the Kennedy Center close for two years for renovation, after a ruling ordered Trump's name off the building.
The Kennedy Center is a non-profit arts institution in Washington, DC, dedicated to the memory of John F. Kennedy; Congress appropriated roughly $37 million to it in the last fiscal year.
Key facts
- Filings submitted to the IRS show the Kennedy Center brought in $307 million in revenues in fiscal year 2024, while Biden was president.
- Ahead of the December 2025 Kennedy Center Honors, an event Trump was set to host himself, he took to calling the building the “Trump Kennedy Center.”
- A 2017 statement from the White House said neither Trump nor Melania Trump, the first lady, would take part “to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction.”
- The Kennedy Center operates as a non-profit and took in about $37 million from Congress during the last fiscal year under the most recent appropriations law signed.
CNN reports that the administration went to court late Friday to seek a two-year shutdown of the Kennedy Center so the building can be renovated, and that more than a dozen employees, the center's lead spokesperson among them, lost their jobs the same day. The Guardian reports the other half of the week: a judge ruled Trump's name was added to the building illegally and ordered it taken down, then told the center on Thursday to give 30 days' notice before any major physical change, demolition included. In the Oval Office, Trump said the center was losing money and that saving it was something he would be willing to do, and he left a question about demolishing it unanswered.
The two accounts agree on the sequence. Trump moved on the board in his third week in office, was named chairman a week later, installed Richard Grenell as executive director, and saw his name go up on the marble facade in December. CNN reports that donors and performers pulled back afterward, with ticket sales sagging, and quotes the center's composer-in-residence since 2021, Carlos Simon, who told the outlet: “There was a haze of despair around the performances. Nobody was showing up to performances.” The Guardian reports the counterweight on the street, where demonstrators ringed the building in the Hands Around the Kennedy Center protest, chanting and carrying signs. The New York Times attributes the institution's decline to the president's handling of it. WSJ points to a lawmaker from the Rust Belt leading the opposition to his plans for the center.
What is settled is the money, the court orders and the personnel: roughly $37 million came from Congress in the last fiscal year, revenues of $307 million were filed with the IRS for fiscal year 2024, the name must come off, and the staff is thinner. What the outlets do not resolve is the building's future use.
“There was a haze of despair around the performances. Nobody was showing up to performances,” said Carlos Simon, appointed composer-in-residence at the Kennedy Center in 2021.
Carlos Simon
Still developing
The administration has asked a federal judge to close the Kennedy Center for renovation, by the time of draft.
How settled the reporting is
Sources
- CNN — ‘It will never be the same’: How Trump turned on the Kennedy Center and brought it to its knees
- The Guardian — Thousands protest Kennedy Center closure amid fears Trump set to demolish institution
Toggle read the full reports of 2 of the 5 outlets counted on this event. The other 3 are counted from their headlines and opening sentences.