{"id":270157,"date":"2026-02-02T12:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T12:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/270157\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T12:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T12:13:07","slug":"donald-trump-to-shut-kennedy-center-for-two-years-of-renovations-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/270157\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump to shut Kennedy Center for two years of renovations \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

United States<\/a> president Donald Trump<\/a> said he would shut the Kennedy Center, Washington\u2019s top performing arts facility, for two years for a \u201ccomplete\u201d renovation, in his latest move to remake the US capital in his image.<\/p>\n

Trump made the announcement in a Truth Social post on Sunday, saying the temporary closure beginning on July 4th would help transform the facility into a venue with the \u201chighest level of success, beauty and grandeur\u201d.<\/p>\n

The US president has already attempted to put his stamp on the Kennedy Center, which opened in 1971 as a tribute to the late Democratic president John F Kennedy, by placing top aides at its helm, including Richard Grenell, a special envoy and former US ambassador to Germany, as its president.<\/p>\n

Trump also sought to rename the venue as the Trump Kennedy centre and has used it for high-profile events such as the Fifa World Cup draw in December and a top US-Saudi investment forum in November.<\/p>\n

But as Trump sought to take control of the US capital\u2019s top entertainment and culture venue \u2013 which hosts orchestra, opera, musical and theatrical performances \u2013 it has suffered high-profile cancellations.<\/p>\n

Most recently, composer Philip Glass scrapped a planned performance of his new symphony, saying the Kennedy Center\u2019s \u201cvalues\u201d were in \u201cdirect conflict with the message of the symphony\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump said the reconstruction of the Kennedy Center has already been financed in full, though he did not offer additional details on the funding of the project.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0In this Might is Right world, there\u2019s one group of people who hold more cards than TrumpOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The decision follows his move to tear down the East Wing of the White House to construct a $400 million (\u20ac337 million) ballroom, and cover the lawn of the Rose Garden with concrete to turn it into a patio.<\/p>\n

Trump has recently said he wants to build a massive arch near Arlington Cemetery, along the model of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like it to be the biggest one of all. We\u2019re the biggest powerful nation,\u201d Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Saturday night as he travelled to Florida for the wedding of one of his top aides, Dan Scavino.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Maureen Dowd: Trump is an anarchic toddler, constantly causing upheaval as the un-American presidentOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

According to the Washington Post, Trump\u2019s arch, which is intended to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the US declaration of independence, would be about 250ft tall, which would make it higher than the nearby Lincoln Memorial. \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"United States president Donald Trump said he would shut the Kennedy Center, Washington\u2019s top performing arts facility, for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[54,42,43,40,38,41,39,1032],"class_list":{"0":"post-270157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories","15":"tag-united-states"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}