WASHINGTON—President Trump said the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will close for two years for renovations, a move he said would turn the venerated national cultural institution into a “new and spectacular Entertainment Complex.”
People walk along the front of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, after the Kennedy Center board decided to rename the institution the Trump-Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., U.S., December 18, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (Agency)
Trump said the Kennedy Center will close on July 4 of this year, a date that coincides with the country’s 250th birthday, and said that the financing for the renovation is “completed, and fully in place.”
“I have determined that The Trump Kennedy Center, if temporarily closed for Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding, can be, without question, the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday evening.
The president said he debated keeping the center open during construction, but argued that a complete closure would “produce a much faster and higher quality result.”
The White House and Kennedy Center officials didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment about the scope of the renovation and who was funding it.
Trump said the move is subject to approval by the Kennedy Center’s board, which is dominated by allies of the president. The president last year installed himself as the board’s chair. Last year, the board voted to rename the venue the Trump-Kennedy Center.
The president has shown considerable interest in the Kennedy Center during his second term, making changes to its programming and moving to upgrade the venue’s facilities. But the center has struggled to fill seats, and some artists have canceled performances.
On Thursday, the venue hosted a premiere screening of a documentary about first lady Melania Trump.
The performing-arts space has eight main stages and more than 2,000 events a year. It had an operating budget of $269 million in 2024.
Musicians and other artists have sought to distance themselves from the center since Trump began exerting more control over it. Composer Philip Glass last month withdrew his Symphony No. 15, titled “Lincoln,”from its world premiere at the Kennedy Center.
“Symphony No. 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the Symphony,” Glass wrote on social media.
