The name of the Trump Kennedy Center is just one change for the complex.
President Donald Trump announced Sunday the Trump Kennedy Center will closed two years for a restoration project set to begin in July, according to The Hill.
“The Trump Kennedy Center will close on July 4th, 2026, in honor of the 250th Anniversary of our Country, whereupon we will simultaneously begin Construction of the new and spectacular Entertainment Complex,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Sunday. “Financing is completed, and fully in place!”
The president said the closure would be the “fastest way to bring The Trump Kennedy Center to the highest level of Success, Beauty, and Grandeur.”
This is preferred over partial closures for construction that would work around the performances, he said.
“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,” the president wrote. “In other words, if we don’t close, the quality of Construction will not be nearly as good, and the time to completion, because of interruptions with Audiences from the many Events using the Facility, will be much longer. The temporary closure will produce a much faster and higher quality result!”
He added the plan would be “totally subject to board approval.”
Richard Grenell, president of the Trump Kennedy Center, posted on X on to state he was grateful for Trump’s “visionary leadership.”
“I am also grateful to Congress for appropriating an historic $257M to finally address decades of deferred maintenance and repairs at the Trump Kennedy Center,” Grenell said.
“Our goal has always been to not only save and permanently preserve the Center, but to make it the finest Arts Institution in the world,” Grenell posted. “It desperately needs this renovation and temporarily closing the Center just makes sense – it will enable us to better invest our resources, think bigger and make the historic renovations more comprehensive. It also means we will be finished faster.”
Not everyone is applauding the project.
“While this trespass on the People’s will is painful, President Kennedy would remind us that it is not buildings that define the greatness of a nation. It is the actions of its people and its leaders,” former Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.) posted on X.
“So, do not be distracted from what this Administration is actually trying to erase: our connection, our community, and our commitment to the rights of all,” he continued.
Maria Shriver, John F. Kennedy’s niece, suggested the closure is due to performers canceling after the recent name change adding Trump’s name.
“I’ve determined that due to this change in schedule, it’s best for me to close this center down and rebuild a new center that will bear my name, which will surely get everybody to stop talking about the fact that everybody’s canceling… right?” Shriver wrote on X.
The board voted in December to rename the center “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
Since then, many acts have canceled their scheduled performances.
Ticket sales have also declined since Trump took control of the center’s operations, according to an analysis from The Washington Post in October.
