Kennedy Center Sign Frenzy Misses the Point

[malaise]

https://washingtonian.com/2026/06/13/kennedy-center-trump-sign-is-gone/

Affixing Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center was bad. It was illegal, reputationally catastrophic for the institution, eerily authoritarian, and crass. But to be honest, I’ve grown wary of the deafening clamor over the sign. I’m not suggesting that the glee about its removal is misplaced, necessarily, just that focus seems to have snagged on the Kennedy Center’s exterior, while what’s truly alarming is occurring inside. Taking the name down will help, I think. Some number of audience members and performers may return. Some wayward donors may be willing to resume their support. But it’s not going to solve the problem. My biggest concern is that the Kennedy Center will remain nominally open—as in, I’ll be free to walk through the doors and perhaps buy a coffee at the cafe—but there will be few, or even no, performances to see.

At one time, the Kennedy Center’s programming issues were related to its signage—audiences and performers refusing to show up to an institution that was named for Trump—but now the issue is more diffuse. Since the Trump takeover, the Kennedy Center has lost most of its programming staff and seems to be making no efforts to replace them. What’s more, administrators wound down programming in anticipation of the two-year closure, which was slated to begin in July. A federal judge halted that plan, ordering the Kennedy Center to stay open—but its calendar remains bare after July 5. There’s a motion before the court asking the Kennedy Center to submit evidence that they’re actively seeking to book performances. But there’s no apparent movement on that front. The sign can come down, and the sign should come down, but it’s one battle in a much larger war.

What enrages me, specifically, is not the sign itself, but one of many things of which it’s become symbolic: the human toll of Trump’s mismanagement—on the performers and ushers and stagehands and box office workers, on all the carpenters and electricians and arts administrators and cafe workers who have given chunks of their lives to making the Kennedy Center run, to supporting performances that ennoble and delight us. Many of those folks have lost their jobs. Those who remain are watching their passions turn to ash while the Kennedy Center falls apart.