Feb. 3, 2026:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he won’t tear down the Kennedy Center. Asked about his announcement that he wants to close the center for two years, Trump said Monday (Feb. 2, 2026) that the building needs repairs and the work can’t be done while patrons are coming and going. The Republican president said the work would cost about $200 million, including installation of the “highest-grade marbles, the highest-grade everything” and new heating and cooling systems. Such a project would mark Trump’s latest effort to put his stamp on a cultural institution that stands as living memorial to Democratic President John F. Kennedy.
Feb. 2, 2026:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he will move to close Washington’s Kennedy Center performing arts venue for two years starting in July for construction. Trump’s announcement on social media Sunday night (Feb. 1, 2026) follows a wave of cancellations by artists since Trump ousted the previous leadership and added his name to the building. Trump announced his plan days after the premiere of “Melania,” a documentary of the first lady, was shown at the storied venue. He says the proposal is subject to approval by the board of the Kennedy Center, which has been stocked with his hand-picked allies.
Dec. 30, 2025:
WASHINGTON (AP) — More artists have canceled scheduled performances at the Kennedy Center following the addition of President Donald Trump’s name to the facility, with jazz supergroup The Cookers pulling out of a planned New Year’s Eve concert, and the institution’s president saying the cancellations belie the artists’ unwillingness to see their music as crossing lines of political disparity.
The fresh round of cancellations after Trump put his name on the building follows an earlier artist backlash in spring. After Trump ousted the Kennedy Center board and named himself the institution’s chairman in February, performer Issa Rae and the producers of “Hamilton” cancelled scheduled engagements while musicians Ben Folds and Renee Fleming stepped down from advisory roles.
The Cookers, a jazz supergroup performing together for nearly two decades, announced their withdrawal from “A Jazz New Year’s Eve” on their website, saying the “decision has come together very quickly” and acknowledging frustration from those who may have planned to attend.
The group didn’t mention the building’s renaming or the Trump administration but did say that, when they return to performing, they wanted to ensure that “the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it,” reiterating a commitment “to playing music that reaches across divisions rather than deepening them.”
The group may not have addressed the Kennedy Center situation directly, but one of its members has. On Saturday, saxophone player Billy Harper said in comments posted on the Jazz Stage Facebook page that he “would never even consider performing in a venue bearing a name (and being controlled by the kind of board) that represents overt racism and deliberate destruction of African American music and culture. The same music I devoted my life to creating and advancing.”
According to the White House, Trump’s handpicked board approved the renaming. Harper said both the board, “as well as the name displayed on the building itself represents a mentality and practices I always stood against. And still do, today more than ever.”
Richard Grenell, a Trump ally whom the president chose to head the Kennedy Center after he forced out the previous leadership, posted Monday night on X that “The artists who are now canceling shows were booked by the previous far left leadership,” intimating the bookings were made under the Biden administration.
In a statement to The Associated Press, Grenell said Tuesday (Dec. 30, 2025) the ”last minute cancellations prove that they were always unwilling to perform for everyone — even those they disagree with politically,” adding that the Kennedy Center had been “flooded with inquiries from real artists willing to perform for everyone and who reject political statements in their artistry.”
There was no immediate word from Kennedy Center officials if the entity would pursue legal action against the group, as Grenell said it would after musician Chuck Redd canceled a Christmas Eve performance. Following that withdrawal, in which Redd cited the Kennedy Center renaming, Grenell said he would seek $1 million in damages for what he called a “political stunt.”
Not all artists are calling off their shows. Bluegrass banjoist Randy Barrett, scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center next month, told the AP he was “deeply troubled by the politicization” of the venue and respected those who had canceled but feels that “our tribalized country needs more music and art, not less. It’s one of the few things that can bring us together.”
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and Congress passed a law the following year naming the center as a living memorial to him. Scholars have said any changes to the building’s name would need congressional approval; the law explicitly prohibits the board of trustees from making the center into a memorial to anyone else, and from putting another person’s name on the building’s exterior.
Dec. 27, 2025:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The president of the Kennedy Center on Friday (Dec. 26, 2025) fiercely criticized a musician’s sudden decision to cancel a Christmas Eve performance at the venue days after the White House announced that President Donald Trump’s name would be added to the facility.
“Your decision to withdraw at the last moment — explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure — is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution,” the venue’s president, Richard Grenell, wrote in a letter to musician Chuck Redd that was shared with The Associated Press.
In the letter, Grenell said he would seek $1 million in damages “for this political stunt.”
Redd did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A drummer and vibraphone player, Redd has presided over holiday “Jazz Jams” at the Kennedy Center since 2006, succeeding bassist William “Keter” Betts. In an email Wednesday to The Associated Press, Redd said he pulled out of the concert in the wake of the renaming.
“When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert,” Redd said. He added Wednesday that the event has been a “very popular holiday tradition” and that he often featured at least one student musician.
“One of the many reasons that it was very sad to have had to cancel,” he told the AP.
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and Congress passed a law the following year naming the center as a living memorial to him.
Grenell is a Trump ally whom the president chose to head the Kennedy Center after he forced out the previous leadership. According to the White House, Trump’s handpicked board approved the renaming, which scholars have said violates the law. Kennedy niece Kerry Kennedy has vowed to remove Trump’s name from the building once he leaves office, and former House historian Ray Smock is among those who say any changes would have to be approved by Congress.
The law explicitly prohibits the board of trustees from making the center into a memorial to anyone else, and from putting another person’s name on the building’s exterior.
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