By Elena Pejic
Boston University News Service
President Donald Trump announced plans to close the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, now renamed to The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, for two years to undergo renovations starting this July.
In his announcement post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that the center will be “closed for Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding” to create the “finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World.”
He added that closing the center for renovations is necessary, as interruption from performers and visitors would slow the process. This is a change from a statement he posted to Truth Social in October, where he said the center would remain open during all renovations and construction.
“We are remaining fully open during construction, renovation, and beautification. I am doing the same thing to the United States of America, but only on a “slightly” larger scale,” he posted last year.
The center’s interim President Ric Grenell said the center is “physically falling apart” and that Trump “has saved the Trump Kennedy Center.”
“We could either hang a sign that said ‘pardon our dust,’ or we could hang a sign that says ‘closed for renovations,’ Grenell said. “And we chose ‘closed for renovations,’” he said on O’Connor and Company on WMAL.
In the days following his announcement about the center closing, Trump said he will not be “ripping it down,” and that he will be keeping the structure of the building.
He added that the project will cost around $200 million, but is “fully financed.”
U.S. Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins said the shut down came as a shock, and was never formally decided upon.
“That came as the big surprise to me, because it was my understanding the renovations are already underway and going well,” said Collins.
U.S. Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree wrote in an MS NOW opinion piece that she believes Republicans and Democrats have to work together to restore the cultural significance of the center.
“That includes members of the president’s party,” Pingree wrote. “I hope my colleagues across the aisle recognize that we must recoup the power the president has usurped from Congress.”
Trump’s announcement to remodel the center follows a series of cancellations by major performers and groups, including a touring production of the hit musical “Hamilton,” in reaction to Trump being named chairman of the center’s board last February.
The center has since faced a sharp financial decline, dropping by about $1.6 million, or about 36 percent in subscription sales, as of June 2025 compared to the same month the previous year.
The center’s board voted to rename the center The Trump Kennedy Center in December, an act which many found disrespectful to former president John F. Kennedy.
Boston University College Democrats Social Media Director Caitlin Smith is one of these people, as she said Trump’s actions toward the center were “distasteful.”
“The center serves as a living memorial for JFK and to add Trump’s name on after he’s kind of sacked the board and made himself the president of the board, is really distasteful and disgraceful for the legacy that it holds,” Smith said.
Smith also said college students need to “take action in return.”
“I think it definitely shows that he’s trying to avoid the embarrassment of all the cancellations and boycotts he was getting from the artists and people who are standing up to Trump, and he’s finally seeing that in some way,” Smith said. “It definitely shows that the boycotts are working.”
