Why Trump Is Really Shutting Down the Kennedy Center

At 23, Donald Trump dreamed of becoming a Broadway producer. His 1970 co-production of Paris Is Out! flopped spectacularly, and he never produced theater again. Fifty-four years later, now president, he's announced a two-year shutdown of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

An Unprecedented Presidential Power Grab

Trump's Sunday announcement to close the Kennedy Center starting this summer for "Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding" represents something no president has ever attempted. While previous presidents appointed board members, none ever served as chair—the position that oversees finances, governance, and programming.

Since taking the chairmanship last February, Trump has systematically reshaped America's premier performing arts venue. He added his name above John F. Kennedy's on the building facade, demanded "anti-woke" programming, and installed himself as host of the annual Kennedy Center Honors. The results have been disastrous: dozens of artists canceled performances, ticket sales plummeted, and the Honors broadcast hit historic low ratings.

Yet as his administration faces multiple scandals—from federal agents' actions in Minneapolis to his unexplained appearance in the Epstein Files—Trump remains laser-focused on the Kennedy Center. "America will be very proud of its new and beautiful Landmark for many generations to come," he declared on Truth Social.

The Theater Kid Who Never Left

Why does a president with tanking approval ratings prioritize a performing arts center over pressing national crises? The answer lies in Trump's complex relationship with the theatrical world that both captivated and rejected him.

Trump has been a Broadway fixture since the early 1990s. In 1992, the same year his then-fiancée Marla Maples made her Broadway debut, he floated the idea of a musical about his own life. By 2005, he announced plans to adapt The Apprentice as a stage musical—a project that never materialized. Throughout his political career, he's blasted Andrew Lloyd Webber songs at rallies, despite the composer's requests to stop.

Leaked audio from his first Kennedy Center board meeting reveals Trump's genuine theatrical passion. He waxed poetic about seeing Cats on Broadway: "All of a sudden the lights go on and you see these people moving so incredibly, like nobody can move except a professional dancer." He praised Betty Buckley's Grizabella as having "the best voice" among "all the great voices and stars, bigger stars than her."

According to a former White House press secretary, one aide's job was playing show tunes whenever Trump was about to "fly off the handle."

When Power Meets Passion

Trump's Kennedy Center takeover represents more than political revenge against an industry that mocked him during his first term. It's the fulfillment of a lifelong dream to control a world that never fully accepted him. Like his gold-plated towers worldwide, the Kennedy Center offers another chance to literally put his name on a prestigious institution.

If his demolition of the East Wing is any indication, Trump's "rebuilding" will be drastic. But this isn't just about architecture—it's about a man using presidential power to force his way into a community that plainly never wanted him.

The irony is stark: Trump displays genuine appreciation for Broadway artistry, yet his heavy-handed approach has driven away the very artists he admires. His purist stance on casting ("oftentimes the original is the best") sounds like any devoted theater fan, yet his actions have created the opposite of what great theater requires: creative freedom.