Kennedy Center To Close as Trump Promises ‘Spectacular Entertainment Complex’

The Trump Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, will undergo two years of renovations, President Donald Trump announced Sunday night.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social that the complex will close on July 4th while the government begins construction on a "new and spectacular Entertainment Complex".

He added that financing is "completed, and fully in place" but did not share further details on what upgrades were planned.

This comes after a year of experts examining the center, finding it "tired, broken, and dilapidated," Trump said.

It also follows controversial changes Trump made to the center, terminating its leadership and becoming its board chair. He later added his own name to the venue. Several acts subsequently canceled performances there.

"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 said.

"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," he continued. "The temporary closure will produce a much faster and higher quality result!"

The center previously announced programming into October. Neither Trump nor the center provided more details or plans about the project.

New phase

President Dwight Eisenhower began exploring construction of the complex in the late 1950s. Government funding and private donations provided the $70 million needed to complete the original structure. It gets an annual federal appropriation for capital repairs and maintenance.

Envisioned as a national cultural center nestled between the National Mall and the Potomac River, the center was reenvisioned as a "living memorial" to President John F. Kennedy after his assassination in 1963.

The Kennedy family made its own mark on real estate both in DC and across the country.

The center completed a $250 million expansion to add a cultural and arts incubator space, the REACH Center, in 2019.

The center typically hosts 2,200 performances and exhibits a year and sees 2 million visitors, but those numbers haven't been updated.