Dem
47
GOP
53
There are certain immutable laws of the universe. An object in motion tends to stay in motion. E=mc2. And any profit-generating concern with Donald Trump's name on it will eventually shut down. In the case of the so-called Trump-Kennedy Center, it took mere months for that to happen.
The Kennedy Center isn't going away, but it will be closed down for 2 years, starting in July. Here is the announcement Trump made on his artless social media platform:
After a one year review of The Trump Kennedy Center, that has taken place with Contractors, Musical Experts, Art Institutions, and other Advisors and Consultants, deciding between either Construction with Closure and Re-Opening or, Partial Construction while continuing Entertainment Operations through a much longer period of time, working in and around the Performances, 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. 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!
Based on these findings, and totally subject to Board approval, I have determined that the fastest way to bring The Trump Kennedy Center to the highest level of Success, Beauty, and Grandeur, is to cease Entertainment Operations for an approximately two year period of time, with a scheduled Grand Reopening that will rival and surpass anything that has taken place with respect to such a Facility before.
Therefore, 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. Financing is completed, and fully in place! This important decision, based on input from many Highly Respected Experts, will take a tired, broken, and dilapidated Center, one that has been in bad condition, both financially and structurally for many years, and turn it into a World Class Bastion of Arts, Music, and Entertainment, far better than it has ever been before. America will be very proud of its new and beautiful Landmark for many generations to come. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
This immediately raises all sorts of questions. For example:
Don't hold your breath waiting for answers to these questions.
In case readers cannot tell, we are not buying this for one second. Congress did appropriate $257 million to spruce the Kennedy Center up, which is in line with its being a half-century-old building that needs a facelift every decade or so. And, at the time, Kennedy board "Chair" Richard Grenell said the renovations would be relatively quick and would not disrupt the normal operations of the venue. Since his initial Truth Social posting, Trump has said that the "steel" of the building would be left intact, and that the price tag would be around $200 million. If that is true, that does not describe a 2-year process (and remember, he also claimed early on that the East Wing of the White House would remain intact, and we know what happened there).
It is painfully obvious that the board either did not anticipate the backlash to adding Trump's name to the venue, or else grossly overestimated how many right-wing performers and right-wing ticket buyers there are out there. It would be an ongoing, and embarrassing, story if the venue was dark half the time, and attracting 25% capacity crowds the other half. It would be an even more embarrassing development, and one that Trump's ego would never allow, to reverse course and strike his name from the Kennedy Center. Turning the relatively low-intensity renovations into a massive, venue-shuttering project is basically the only way to save face. And so, a lot of talented people will have one less place to share their gifts for the next couple years (or more). And Washington will have a lot less culture over that same timeframe (unless you count the Trump-inspired tap dancing that Mike Johnson does every day as "culture"). (Z)