The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., was once considered one of the nation’s most prestigious cultural institutions. It’s half empty now.
Before Donald Trump’s second term in office, the Kennedy Center hosted more than 2,000 events each year, making it the busiest performing arts center in the nation. It is the official home of the National Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera, and has hosted family-friendly drag shows and LGBTQ+ pride events in recent years.
The center’s 2026 schedule appears empty as President Trump bans all activities related to the gay community and musicians continue to cancel performances in protest. It’s not just the center’s reputation that is in ruins, but ticket sales and broadcast viewership this year are significantly lower than they were under the Biden administration.
Trump claims to be shaking things up in the name of saving the center, but in reality his decisions are destroying the center. This is all he’s ever done.
Trump takes over the Kennedy Center
donald trump
Joey Sussman/Shutterstock
In February, President Trump announced plans to wipe out the Kennedy Center’s board of directors and replace it with himself as chairman. He said he is particularly motivated to completely renovate the center to eliminate the family drag shows it occasionally hosts.
“At my direction, I am going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., great again,” Trump said on Truth Social. “I have decided to immediately terminate several individuals from the board of directors, including the director, who do not share my vision for a golden age of arts and culture.” “We will soon be announcing a new Board of Directors with an incredible Chairman in Donald J. Trump!”
“Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured a drag show specifically targeted to our youth, but this is coming to an end,” he continued. “The Kennedy Center is America’s jewel, and our stage must reflect the nation’s brightest stars. For the Kennedy Center, the best is yet to come!”
After dismissing several directors appointed by the president joe biden President Trump named Richard Grenell, a staunch MAGA ally and openly gay former ambassador, as interim “executive director,” including former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, award-winning musician Jon Batiste, and billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein.
Kennedy Center bans drugs and pride
After President Trump took office, the Kennedy Center began removing all events related to the LGBTQ+ community from its calendar. In addition to canceling drag shows, the center also canceled performances by the gay men’s choir. Washington DC, and the National Symphony Orchestra.
The choir confirmed in a statement in February that its unofficial World Pride concert, “Peacock Among the Pigeons,” was canceled shortly after the performance and ticket information had quietly disappeared from the center’s website.
“This song was intended as part of the Kennedy Center’s Pride celebration, and we were thrilled to collaborate with the NSO as guest chorus,” the choir wrote. “We believe in the power of music to educate and uplift, foster love, understanding and community, and we are disappointed that this opportunity was taken away from us.”
Organizers of WorldPride 2025 also made the decision in May to move several events from the Kennedy Center to the WorldPride Welcome Center in downtown Washington, D.C., including the Tapestry of Pride program featuring parts of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a reading room, and family drug story time.
said Ryan Boss, executive director of Capital Pride Alliance. defender The organization announced in February that it expected gatherings at the Kennedy Center would no longer be welcome under the Trump administration and were “considering identifying a new location just in case.”
Kennedy Center ticket sales plummet
By October, ticket sales at the center had plummeted. According to a report, more than 43 percent of seats went unsold between September 3 and October 19. washington postcompared to just 7% during the same period in 2024.
The data showed that the Kennedy Center’s largest venues, the Opera House, Concert Hall and Eisenhower Theater, were all struggling. Even in high-profile events, sound of music The National Symphony Orchestra’s program was not filled to capacity, leaving tens of thousands of seats empty.
At the same time, other high-profile events that were supposed to draw crowds began to be canceled due to artist withdrawals. hamilton Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda said: outside, defender’s Our sister publication said it was “morally uncomplicated” to cancel the musical planned for the center in 2026.
“Well, in a way we were lucky in that there was no contract in place, so there were no legal repercussions for us to pull out,” Miranda said. “Morally, it wasn’t complicated because the Kennedy Center has historically been a bipartisan institution of our nation’s best art. The Trump administration fired the board and politicized it when Mr. Trump became chairman.”
“If we had the option not to participate, we were not going to participate. We are very grateful that we have the option not to participate,” he added. “It was a very easy decision for us not to participate in something like this.”
Trump renames Kennedy Center
In December, the White House claimed that the Kennedy Center’s board of directors unanimously voted to change its name to the Trump Kennedy Center, an authority only Congress has. Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, later said the changes were forced because she was prevented from speaking.
“What you may have heard is that there was a unanimous vote to rename the Kennedy Center the Trump Center,” Beatty said in a statement. video Posted online. “To be clear, I was on that call and I tried to express my concerns and ask questions and, of course, press the button to not vote up this, and I got muted. Every time I tried to speak, I got muted.”
The family of the late President John F. Kennedy immediately voiced their opposition. His niece Maria Shriver said: post The decision left her “speechless, furious and in disbelief,” she said. Former Congressman Joe Kennedy III argued that the name change was illegal.
“The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to our fallen president and is named for him by federal law,” he said. I wrote. “No matter what anyone says, you can’t change the name as quickly as you can change the name of the Lincoln Memorial.”
Grenell responded by mocking them. he I wrote“The place was literally falling apart and you didn’t help at all. Maria, where were you? You were completely silent while the building collapsed. Donald Trump had to step in and save the building because you didn’t help. You should be grateful to him.”
Trump tanks Kennedy Center honors student ratings
Donald Trump and Melania Trump at the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors Ceremony
Alison Robert/Getty Images
While Grenell claims Trump saved the day, the center continued to experience its worst year in recent history. President Trump announced that he would host the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors on CBS, saying he had chosen “98 percent” of the nominees and rejected some “woke” choices. He also claimed that White House chief of staff Susie Wiles convinced him to host the ceremony, saying it would “improve viewership.”
“I’m the president of the United States. Is that what you’re asking of me?” Trump said. “‘Sir, you’ll get a higher rating.’ I said, ‘I don’t care.’ I am the President of the United States. I won’t do it. They said, “Please.”
reported that the telecast of the 48th Kennedy Center Honors had the lowest viewership ever for the event. Programming Insider. The broadcast drew just 2.65 million viewers, a 35% decrease from 2024’s 4.1 million viewers. This itself was one of the lowest rated shows in recent years.
Artist cancels show at Kennedy Center
Several artists have canceled performances in response to the Kennedy Center’s name change. Jazz musician Chuck Redd cited the rebrand directly, canceling his annual free Christmas Eve concert for the first time in more than 20 years.
“When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and a few hours later at the building, I decided to cancel the concert,” Redd said. Associated Press.
New York jazz group The Cookers canceled their scheduled New Year’s Eve performance just two days ago. The group did not directly mention the name change in its document. statement But, he said, “Jazz was born of struggle and a relentless insistence on freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and the full freedom of human voice.”
“We are not turning away from the audience, and when we return to the bandstand, we want to ensure that the venue is able to celebrate the music and the presence of everyone there to its fullest,” the group wrote. “Our hope is that this moment leaves room for reflection rather than outrage.”
Other artists have also canceled performances scheduled for later this year, including country singer Christy Lee and New York-based dance company Doug Vallone and Dancers. Lee said that while it “hurts to cancel the show” in order to “keep the lights on”, he felt the “loss of integrity would cost more than any paycheck”.
Grenell recently sent a letter to Red, threatening to sue for $1 million in damages for canceling the free concert. He called the musician’s decision a “political stunt.”
“Your decision to pull out at the last minute, clearly in response to the recent renaming of the center to honor President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to preserve this national treasure, is classic intolerance and one that comes at a very high cost to a nonprofit arts institution,” Grenell wrote.
And for some reason, “South Park” is also involved.
south park screen display
agustin.photo/Shutterstock
Regardless of whether the center’s name change is legal or not, the Trump administration won’t be able to change the website’s name anytime soon. Former actor Toby Morton said this as authorities grapple with backlash over the name change and the cancellation of some performances. south park The writer revealed that he had already purchased the website domains TrumpKennedyCenter.org and TrumpKennedyCenter.com.
Morton said. washington post He said he bought the domain in August, predicting that President Trump would try to name the center after him. “When President Trump started demolishing the Kennedy Center Board of Directors earlier this year, I thought, ‘Wow, that name is going to stay on the building,'” he said.
The website is still under construction, but it already contains posts critical of the president, including one that encourages visitors to “ring in the new year with a performance by the Epstein Dancers.” Parts of the site’s logo have also been blacked out, a reference to the heavily redacted Epstein files recently released by the Justice Department.
“Here traditions are preserved, stories are carefully selected, and performances are elevated beyond mere art,” the website states. “What you remember is important; what you leave out is more important.”
Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
