An effigy depicting U.S. President Donald Trump during "March on Washington 2026: Defend the Vote" rally and march for voting rights in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 28, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
A New York Times opinion writer said President Donald Trump’s campaign against the Kennedy Center has sparked a level of anger that surprised her.
“Now President Trump is out to destroy the Kennedy Center, and the magnitude of my rage startles me,” Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Robin Givhan wrote in a guest essay Friday. “After all, Mr. Trump has done so many other cruel, brutal things that have upended people’s lives, this democracy and its place in the world.”
But his takeover of the performing arts center and threat to demolish it signaled something larger for Givhan.
“Nothing has so thoroughly highlighted his indefatigable petulance,” she wrote. “Because Mr. Trump wants his name on the building. That’s it.”
Trump’s name was added to the Kennedy Center’s facade in December after he installed himself as chairman and filled its board with loyalists. But a federal judge has since ordered its removal, ruling that only Congress could rename the memorial.
Givhan described the controversy as part of Trump’s effort to remake Washington according to "his own gilded, tarty, self-aggrandizing taste.”
She also pointed to a viral photograph of Trump aboard Air Force One examining a poster with the words, “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED.”
“Will his presidency be remembered more for his foolishness or his failure? Either way, everyone loses,” Givhan concluded. “And that most certainly includes Mr. Trump."