Former Republican insider Rick Wilson has a grim outlook for the Kennedy Center.
In his Substack published Friday, the co-founder of the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project made a stark prediction over how President Donald Trump would handle the performing arts institution — with a tear down.
"I regret to inform you that on July 5th or thereabouts, bulldozers will slam into the Kennedy Center and start destroying it," Wilson wrote.
"Not because Trump has a plan. Not because it needs to be razed," Wilson explained. "Just to hurt people. It’s the same plan as the East Wing; destroy something beloved and replace it with a trashy substitute, a corrupt echo of something better, all while reveling in the same pain he enjoyed as far back as his destruction of the historic facade Bonwit-Teller in Manhattan in 1982."
Trump has renamed the living memorial for President John F. Kennedy as "The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts" without congressional approval. This week he announced plans to close it for two years, citing extensive renovations.
Wilson pointed out the flaws behind Trump's mindset around the location remodel, his aims to secure his legacy and how it would reflect the similar moves he made at the White House's East Wing.
"Trump believes the imaginary D.C. skyline of his dreams will be what remains of him when he’s gone. Like Hitler’s vision of Speer’s Berlin, or Stalin’s fantasy of Moscow, skylines crafted by dictators rarely come to pass, and even when they do, they’re remembered with a sense of shame and longing for what came before," Wilson wrote.
Trump's decision to takeover the Kennedy Center comes as a number of the venue's bookings were cancelled in protest of the Trump administration. A number of performers have decided to nix their partnerships with the location and cancel their Kennedy Center dates, including composer Philip Glass, Béla Fleck, Issa Rae and The Cookers. The Washington National Opera announced it would no longer perform there and hit musical "Hamilton" also decided not to bring its 2026 production run to the historic location.
