Kennedys, Orchestra Respond to Trump's 2-Year Shutdown

President Trump's plan to shut down Washington's Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for a two-year overhaul has drawn opposition from the namesake's descendants. Several members of the Kennedy family criticized Trump after he announced that the performing arts center will close on July 4 for renovations tied to the nation's 250th birthday, the Hill reports. And the National Symphony Orchestra, the center's biggest tenant, said it was blindsided by Trump's announcement; it was booking dates through the next few years, per NBC News.

The board Trump installed voted to change the name to the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, which the Kennedys brought up. Jack Schlossberg, JFK's grandson and a Democratic congressional candidate in New York, said on X that Trump "can change the name, shut the doors, and demolish the building. He can try to kill JFK." But his grandfather's legacy now lives in those working to defeat Trump and "restore the freedoms generations fought for," Schlossberg wrote. Former Rep. Joe Kennedy III, grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, called the move a "trespass on the People's will," noting that Congress created the center in 1964 as a "living memorial" to JFK and saying his uncle would insist "it is not buildings that define the greatness of a nation" but its people and leaders.

Orchestra management and musicians said Trump's announcement Sunday night was the first they'd heard of a shutdown. They play 150 concerts a year, in addition to holding rehearsals at the center. Among the questions is why renovations couldn't carry on while part of the complex is open, as happened in 2019.

Now musicians, whose contract expires this year, aren't sure of their jobs. "They are here to make music and they don't want to get involved in politics," a staff member told NBC. "But every time they turn around, there is conflict around them." Acts have called off their performances since the name announcement, and Maria Shriver mocked the decision as an attempt to distract from performers "canceling left and right." She suggested on X that Trump wants to rebuild the center in a way that will more prominently feature his name.