Feb. 1 (UPI) — President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he will close Washington’s Kennedy Center for two years from July for construction, amid artist cancellations and boycotts protesting his cultural agenda.
Trump said the decision to close the Kennedy Center starting July 4 follows a yearlong review in consultation with contractors, musical experts, arts institutions and advisers and consultants. They had considered a partial construction project that would permit shows to continue, but decided the best option for the venue was a temporary closure.
“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 wrote in a post on his Truth Social media platform.
“This important decision, based on input from many Highly Respected Experts, will take a tired, broken and dilapidated Center, one that has been in bad condition, both financially and structurally for many years, and turn it into a World Class Bastion of Arts, Music and Entertainment, far better than it has ever been before.”
Since returning to the White House, Trump has focused on the Kennedy Center as part of his broader cultural agenda aimed at removing left-leaning thought and ideology from public and private institutions.
Early in his second term, Trump overhauled its leadership and restructured its board, filling it with appointees who in February elected him board chair.
Trump said his reason for wanting to chair the board is to make sure the Kennedy Center “runs properly” without “woke” politics.
“We don’t need woke at the Kennedy Center,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One after being named its chair.
In December, the board voted to rename the famed art facility after him: The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.
Several artists who were scheduled to perform at the institution have since canceled while others have publicly stated that they would not accept an invitation.
Last week, internationally renowned American composer Philip Glass announced he will not perform his “Symphony No. 15,” a portrait of President Abraham Lincoln, stating that “the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the Symphony.”
In March, the musical hit Hamilton, which had previously performed at the center, announced it was canceling its performances at the venue.
“In recent weeks we have sadly seen decades of Kennedy Center neutrality be destroyed,” Jeffrey Seller, the show’s producer, said in a statement at the time.
“Given these recent actions, our show simply cannot, in good conscience, participate and be a part of this new culture that is being imposed on the Kennedy Center.”
The president made no mention of the numerous cancellations in his Sunday statement, which explained funding for the construction project was in place.
“I have determined that the fastest way to bring The Trump Kennedy Center to the highest level of Success, Beauty and Grandeur is to cease Entertainment Operations for an approximately two year period of time, with a scheduled Grand Reopening that will rival and surpass anything that has taken place with respect to such a Facility before,” he said.
Congress allocated $257 million for construction projects at the Kennedy Center in Trump’s major tax cuts bill, which he signed into law in July.
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