COLUMN: Trump Shuts Down the Kennedy Center, and the Kennedy Family Is Fuming

When the Arts Say No

The artists didn’t wait. As soon as the name change was announced, cancellations began pouring in. Philip Glass, a living legend of contemporary music, canceled the world premiere of his work. Others followed suit: orchestras, dance companies, theater troupes. They all said no. No to Trump. No to this cultural appropriation. No to this transformation of a sacred place into a political tool. Ticket sales plummeted. The public, too, voted with their feet. Who wants to attend a performance in a theater renamed by a president who openly despises cultural institutions? Who wants to endorse this farce? No one—or almost no one. The Kennedy Center, once teeming with life, gradually emptied out. The auditoriums remained half-empty. The programming grew sparse. Its prestige evaporated.

And I think of all those artists who were forced to make a choice. Cancel their show, lose months of work, disappoint their audience. Or agree to perform in a venue tainted by one man’s ego. What an impossible choice. What cruelty.

Angry Heirs

The Kennedy family was quick to respond. Joe Kennedy III, JFK’s grandnephew, posted a scathing message on social media. “Although this disregard for the will of the people is painful, President Kennedy would remind us that it is not buildings that define a nation’s greatness. It is the actions of its people and its leaders.” Maria Shriver, JFK’s niece and the daughter of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, opted for biting irony. “I’ve decided that, given this change in schedule, it’s best for me to close this center and rebuild a new one that will bear my name—which will surely ensure that everyone stops talking about how everyone is canceling… right?” But it was Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s grandson, who struck the hardest blow. “Trump can take the Kennedy Center for himself. He can change the name, shut the doors, and tear down the building. He can try to kill JFK. But JFK is kept alive by us, who are now standing up to remove Donald Trump, bring him to justice, and restore the freedoms that generations have fought for.”

These words give me chills. Because they speak the truth. Trump can destroy everything, take everything for himself, and sully everything. But he cannot kill an idea. He cannot erase a legacy. The Kennedys know this. They’ve lived through it.

A Building Allegedly in Disrepair

In his announcement, Trump claims to have made this decision after a “year-long review” of the center. He describes the building as “worn, broken, and dilapidated,” in “poor financial and structural condition for many years.” He promises to transform it into a “world-class bastion of the arts, music, and entertainment.” The problem? No evidence. Neither Trump nor Ric Grenell, the Kennedy Center’s new president and a staunch Trump ally, has provided a single document substantiating these alleged structural problems. No expert reports. No technical studies. Nothing. Just claims thrown out on social media. Even more troubling, last October, Trump had promised that the center would remain open during renovations. What happened between October and February? Artists fled. Shows were canceled. The audience deserted the venue. Trump realized he couldn’t save face. So he’s shutting it all down.

It’s so transparent. So pathetic. He destroys something, it doesn’t work, so he claims it was already broken. As if we were all blind. As if we didn’t see through the charade.

When Democracy Becomes a Show

Trump announced that his decision was “entirely subject to the board’s approval.” What a joke. The Kennedy Center’s board of directors is now made up of his loyalists. He purged it of Democratic members, installed his allies, and now he claims the decision will be democratic. It’s like asking employees if they agree with their boss. The answer is a foregone conclusion. Trump himself chairs the center’s board of directors. He is both judge and jury. He decides, then pretends to consult others. This democratic charade is insulting. It shows just how much Trump despises institutions, processes, and rules. For him, everything is just a facade. Everything is just a show. And the Kennedy Center, ironically, has become the stage for its own destruction.

I think of all those people who still believe in institutions. Who think that rules matter, that procedures offer protection. Trump shows them every day that they are wrong. That everything can be hijacked, manipulated, and stripped of its meaning.

A Cynically Chosen Date

The center will close on July 4—America’s Independence Day. Trump proudly announced it, as if it were an honor. “In honor of our country’s 250th anniversary,” he wrote. But what honor is there in closing a cultural center on the nation’s Independence Day? What message are we sending by turning off the lights at one of the symbols of American culture on the very day we celebrate freedom? It’s a deliberate choice. A symbolic choice. Trump wants to leave a lasting impression. He wants this date to be etched into people’s memories. July 4, 2026—the day the Kennedy Center died. The day Trump won. The day culture gave in. It’s cynical. It’s calculated. It’s Trump.

That date haunts me. Because it says it all. It says that, for Trump, freedom has meaning only if it serves his interests. That culture has value only if it bears his name. That America exists only as an extension of his ego.

When a Kennedy Betrays His Own

Amid this chorus of family protests, one voice is missing: that of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s Secretary of Health. When asked in December about the name change, RFK Jr. said he had “bigger fish to fry.” He has not commented on the announcement of the closure. His silence is deafening. While his cousins, nephews, and his entire family denounce the Trump administration’s co-opting of the Kennedy Center, he remains silent. Worse, he endorses it—through his silence, through his position in the Trump administration, and through his refusal to take a stand. RFK Jr. has chosen his side. And it is not his family’s. It is not that of the Kennedy legacy. It is that of power, opportunism, and compromise. The Kennedys have always been a divided, complex, and sometimes contradictory family. But this is different. This is betrayal.

I don’t know which is sadder: seeing Trump destroy the Kennedy legacy, or seeing a Kennedy help him do it. RFK Jr. will go down in history as the one who chose Trump over his own family. What a fall from grace.

When Everything Becomes Negotiable

This issue goes beyond the Kennedy Center. It raises a fundamental question: What is still sacred in America? Which institutions, symbols, and places are still protected from presidential narcissism? If Trump can rename the Kennedy Center, what else might he do? Rename the Lincoln Memorial? Add his name to Mount Rushmore? Turn the White House into Trump House? These questions seemed absurd just a few years ago. Today, they are legitimate. Trump has shown that there are no limits. No red lines. No respect for history, tradition, or collective memory. Everything is negotiable. Everything is for sale. Everything can bear his mark. And if no one stops him, he’ll keep going. He’ll go further. He’ll destroy more. Because that’s his nature. Because that’s what he does.

I’m afraid. Afraid of what this means for the future. Afraid of living in a country where nothing is protected anymore, where everything can be hijacked, where history itself becomes malleable. Trump builds nothing. He creates nothing. He does nothing but appropriate, hijack, and defile. And we let him do it.

When Outrage Is No Longer Enough

The Kennedy Center is closing. For two years, this cultural icon will fall silent. Trump claims he’s renovating it, transforming it, improving it. But we all know what’s really going on. He’s closing it because he’s failed. Because artists have rejected him. Because the public has abandoned him. Because his oversized ego has killed what he claimed to celebrate. The Kennedy family has protested. Artists have fled. The public has deserted it. But that’s not enough. Because in the end, Trump does whatever he wants. He renames, he closes, he destroys. And no one is really stopping him. Institutions are bowing to pressure. The rules adapt. Democracy is distorted. The Kennedy Center is just one symbol among many. But it’s an important symbol. It’s a reminder that nothing is sacred. That everything can be taken, transformed, destroyed. That the legacy of an assassinated president can be erased by the ego of a living president. And that we, collectively, are letting it happen.

I end this article with a bitter taste in my mouth. Because I know that tomorrow, Trump will do something else. He’ll cross another line. He’ll destroy another symbol. And we’ll write another indignant article. And nothing will change. Because outrage isn’t enough anymore. Action is needed. We need courage. We need to say no. A resounding no. Not just on Twitter. Not just in articles. But in our actions, in our choices, in our votes. Otherwise, we deserve what’s happening to us. We deserve to see our symbols destroyed, our institutions hollowed out, our history rewritten. We deserve Trump. And that is the hardest truth to accept.

Signed, Jacques Provost