Thousands of protesters descended on the Kennedy Center over the weekend, surrounding the landmark in a show of defiance after President Donald Trump threatened to tear it down.
The demonstrators linked hands around the building, waved signs mocking the president, and demanded that he keep his hands off the arts.
The crowd carried signs reading “You’re No Jack Kennedy” and “Hands Off the Arts,” while another riffed on the popular musical Wicked with the headline “Wicked: Starring DJT.”
One man wore a hat reading “Make America Intelligent Again.” Another, wearing a crown and a Trump mask, held a sign in the president’s imagined voice demanding, “Restore my name in gold, you sycophants.”
At one point, a massive ring of protesters surrounded the building, linked hands, and held them aloft. The demonstration, organized as “Hands Around the Kennedy Center,” drew thousands to protest the venue’s closure and fears that Trump could demolish it.
Trump has made the Kennedy Center a personal project since taking control of the institution and installing a new board of directors just weeks after his second inauguration. He has pushed to put his name on the building, reshaped its programming, and repeatedly floated the possibility of tearing it down.
Trump first plastered his name on the center last December. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered the president’s name removed in May, saying only Congress could change the name.
The latest threat came just days after a federal judge blocked an attempt to add Trump’s name back to the Kennedy Center facade. The president said the center was deteriorating and dangerous and might have to be “ripped down.”
A photograph taken through the windows of Air Force One showing Trump examining what appeared to be plans for the building’s demolition only added fuel to the backlash.
Cooper then ordered a detailed report on the center’s “temporary closure” and ruled that the Kennedy Center must provide at least 30 days’ notice before making any major physical changes, including demolition.
Trump has claimed the Kennedy Center has been losing “hundreds of millions of dollars.” In fact, tax records show the center’s revenue jumped by millions of dollars in 2024, though some of that was a federal allocation.
When Trump became the Kennedy Center chair and named his own Trump-aligned board, performers and private funders fled. The administration has attributed the center’s financial and structural problems to conditions it says require extensive renovations, while critics have pointed to the loss of artists and donors since Trump took control.
Trump claimed to reporters Friday at the Oval Office that he could “save” the Kennedy Center “easily.” Then he added: “But why should we be doing that and then raise money for the rest of our lives to keep it afloat? Because that’s what you have to do if we get no recognition. I think the Trump administration should be recognized as having saved the Kennedy Center,” he added.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and the Kennedy Center for comment.
