President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump attend "Les Miserables" opening night at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., June 11, 2025.
A long-time Kennedy Center performer spoke to The Hill on Monday, ripping Donald Trump's claims about the institution needing lengthy repairs as "a complete lie."
On Sunday evening, Trump took to Truth Social to announce that the Kennedy Center would be shutting down for two years on July 4. This followed a "year review," which he said revealed that the center was "tired, broken, and dilapidated," necessitating a lengthy renovation process.
“Financing is completed, and fully in place!” Trump's post read. “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.”
Despite his claims about the reasoning for the shutdown, the move was widely mocked and criticized as an effort to save face after his attempt to take over the Kennedy Center caused performers to cancel appearances en masse. After installing a new board of loyalists early on in his second term, Trump made the widely derided move of adding his name to the building without congressional authorization, and pledged to reshape its entertainment offerings to better align with his political views.
Speaking with The Hill, Helen Hedman, a veteran performer based in Washington, D.C., said that Trump's claim about the Kennedy Center's state of repair was a "complete lie," noting that everything she could see looked good and that stagehands said "everything's working backstage."
“The plumbing works, the carpet looks great. The fountains are working, the lights are working,” Hedman said. “I think you take an institution of art like the Kennedy Center, it is part of the soul of not only me and my fellow artists in Washington, in the United States, it’s the soul of patrons. It’s the soul of all of us. When you take something like that, you’re taking something away from all of us."
In a post to Bluesky responding to Trump's announcement, writer and reporter Julian Sanchez further disputed the president's claims by pointing out that the Kennedy Center was last renovated only a few years ago, and under Trump's watch.
"Since a lot of the coverage is omitting this detail: The Kennedy Center HAD a $250 million renovation and expansion just a few years ago, in 2019," Sanchez posted, later adding, "I guess this might not be obvious to folks who aren’t in DC/regular attendees, but: The [Kennedy Center] is a gorgeous venue. It is not run down, and certainly is not remotely in need of the kind of complete renovation that would require shutting it down for two years."