Blockhead that I am, I was unaware that the Kennedy Center was collapsing on itself in January 2025 and that God had sent Donald Trump to rescue it. I looked forward to hearing the National Symphony Orchestra perform in the Concert Hall, perhaps an evening of Mahler or Brahms that I would remember for the rest of my life.
You know what happened. Trump, who never visited the Kennedy Center during his first term in office, and only visited the Center in March 2025, after appointing himself Chairman of the Kennedy Center Board of Directors, shocked Washington, D.C. by announcing the Kennedy Center was in sorry shape, and only he could fix it.
The Kennedy Center Board, repopulated with Trump loyalists, some with scant evidence of interest in the arts, followed Trump’s visit, by putting Donald J. Trump’s name ahead of John F. Kennedy’s on the side of the building. The new name was installed at record speed, of course.
Trump’s Kennedy Center Blitzkrieg ignited a mass cancellation of various acts that were booked for the 2025-26 season. Trump commented that things like classical music were money losers anyway. He and his Board promised to replace much of the programming at the Kennedy Center with music, plays and other arts they believe to be more “in sync” with the tastes of the American public.
Goodbye Beethoven, hello Lee Greenwood.
With disgust I read that the NSO would not play at the Kennedy Center while a two-year restoration would take place requiring the building to be closed. For the upcoming season, the NSO will perform at six separate venues.
A legal challenge to the take-over of the Kennedy Center followed, and a judge ordered Trump’s name to be removed from the side of the building. Trump reluctantly complied, but, anticipating that the judge’s ruling would be overturned, or that the public would acquiesce in Trump renaming the Kennedy Center after himself, the lettering spelling out Trump’s name was removed behind a curtain, a curtain that remains in place to this day.
Trump, angry at being denied the creation of another monument to himself to complement the Ballroom/Military Base at the White House, the Trump Arch, and even the renamed Trump Institute for Peace building, now threatens to walk away from the entire Kennedy Center project. The Board has announced the indefinite closure of the Kennedy Center and Trump has said that he will not lift a finger to save unless his name is returned to the Center.
Let’s call that an impasse. Meanwhile, the Kennedy Center Board has announced the building is unfit for habitation. Last week, the Board claims a huge chunk of ceiling fell down in the Center’s Grand Foyer. (Curious timing, in my view.) They also produced a slick video showing rusting steel beams, leaky pipes, and disintegrating concrete.
Lovers of the Kennedy Center can’t tell where the lies end and truth begins. And, given the transparency policies of the Trump administration, the truth may never be known.
So, I am left wondering, will I ever go to another play or concert at the Kennedy Center? Will the NSO make it through what will surely be a difficult time, both financially and musically? (Will this great orchestra be rendered mediocre by Donald Trump?). Will Washington have Opera and Ballet companies when and if the Kennedy Center or its replacement ever opens?
My message to the Kennedy Center is, for now, “Goodbye.” President John Fitzgerald Kennedy deserves better, and so do the American people.
12 Responses
Trump is to the arts what the Taliban is to religious freedom. He his totally undeserving of having his name on the Kennedy Center.
How pathetic is it that we have our President spending an inordinate amount of his time on attaching his name to existing or future buildings in our nation’s Capitol? He would do much better extracting the U.S. from the war he started with Iran, lowering our gas prices, and repairing the relations he has so badly damaged with all of our allies.
I could not agree more. Thank you for reading the piece.
Very well said. It is so sad.
Henry, thanks for your kind words. I agree–it is very sad.
The ONLY place that Trump’s name should appear in the future is on his tombstone.
Bob, let me politely disagree. I believe Trump’s name will appear in future history books as the most corrupt, narcissistic person ever to serve as President.
Spot on, my friend! From the moment it opened, The Kennedy Center joined ranks with such other greatest American concert halls with which I have been blest to be intimate, New York’s Carnegie Hall and Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre. From the house out front of the proscenium to the technical amenities behind and above stage, it has bestowed honor upon the greatest artists of our time – indeed, who considered this a basilica to their lives and arts. But it also has given us a living memorial to a President of The United States who risked body and being in war, and who gave his last measure well before the time we should depart. The words he gave to us and the ideals he elevated in our American ethos are worthy of teaching to our children. ….. A basilica is built in honor of that one who gave his life, both when living and then sacrificed upon the altar of martyrdom. Those who lay the foundations seek no emolument for themselves. Indeed, those who pair brick and mortar have the personal fulfillment for merely having been there, their monuments within the hearts of their families, the arch to their memory.
You say “My comment to the Kennedy Center is, for now, ‘goodbye’.”
Why ‘goodbye’ …?
You have said that you love, respect and treasure the Kennedy Center … why not also say ‘I will stand and fight for you?’
Why the current general epidemic of spinelessness?
What if the democrats and independents actually win at the mid-terms and still don’t grow spines? Will nothing change?
Bishop, thank you for your insights on what what the Kennedy Center is.
I have just about given up hope that there is someone in Trumps circle that will ever say: For God’s sake, stop acting like a spoiled 5 year old that needs a good old fashioned ass whooping”
Amen. That is exactly what should happen.
One of the most straightforward and powerful things one can do to ‘fight back’ against the increasing mindlessness, is to first learn the issues and then make make your thoughts known, via phone call, directly to those who will be doing the voting (and determining the real life outcomes) … in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
And ‘there is an app for that’.
Everything you need (including details on issues up for a vote) is available at the push of a button on the app, ‘5 Calls’.
Google it, or click here to download it …
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/myapp/id1202558609?ls=1&mt=8
It’s possible to enter any state as your ‘location’, in order to reach that state’s information, and leave a phone message for that state’s representatives.