When Culture Wars Meet Empty Seats

57% of tickets went unsold at the Kennedy Center last fall. A year ago, that figure was 7%. The difference? Presidential intervention in America's premier performing arts venue.

Yesterday, Donald Trump announced the Kennedy Center will close for two years starting July 4th, citing the need for "Complete Rebuilding" to create "the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World." The closure marks an implicit admission that his hostile takeover of the venerable Washington institution has failed spectacularly.

The Takeover That Backfired

In early 2025, Trump seized unprecedented presidential control of the Kennedy Center, firing respected president Deborah Rutter and installing Richard Grenell—a political operative with no arts experience—as her replacement. Trump's confidence was absolute: he knew what audiences wanted, even though he admitted never attending a show there himself.

The results were immediate and devastating. Philip Glass pulled a commissioned symphony. Opera star Renée Fleming canceled performances. The Washington National Opera announced its departure. Jazz musician Chuck Redd canceled his traditional Christmas Eve concert after Grenell threatened to sue him for $1 million.

"Almost every head of programming has resigned or been dismissed," according to The Washington Post. The latest casualty was Kevin Couch, who quit as head of programming less than two weeks after his hiring was announced.

The Silent Majority That Wasn't There

Trump's theory was simple: a "silent majority" would flock to shows that reflected MAGA values rather than what he saw as leftist culture. He believed his taste—"gilded accents and kitschy musicals"—would resonate with both general audiences and Washington's arts patrons.

The numbers tell a different story. Ticket sales plummeted from 93% capacity in fall 2024 to just 57% by last September. CNN reports the center couldn't even book performances for the upcoming season. One of the few artists who did perform, folk guitarist Yasmin Williams, faced organized heckling from Trump supporters.

Grenell blamed the collapse on liberal boycotts: "The left is boycotting the Arts because Trump is supporting the Arts." But this misses the fundamental issue—Trump politicized the center first, promising to use it as a weapon against cultural opponents.

A Pattern of Overreach

The Kennedy Center debacle fits Trump's broader governing pattern: confident overreach followed by reality's harsh correction. He believed border security concerns meant Americans would support "violent crackdowns in the streets"—instead, his immigration approval ratings keep falling. He assumed his economic promises gave him carte blanche on inflation—instead, voter confidence in the future is declining.

The arts venue closure also reflects Trump's documented pattern of destruction without reconstruction. Despite promises of revival, the center will reopen in two years facing the same fundamental problems: no artists want to perform there, no audiences want to attend, and no qualified staff want to work there.

The Broader Cultural Question

Trump's Kennedy Center experiment reveals something crucial about the intersection of politics and culture in America. Unlike authoritarian regimes that successfully co-opt cultural institutions, American arts ecosystems resist top-down political control—from any direction.

The failure also highlights the limits of the "silent majority" theory in cultural spaces. While Trump won the 2024 election, that electoral success didn't translate into cultural influence. Popular culture has remained "stubbornly indifferent to MAGA aesthetics," as The Atlantic noted.