“The Kennedy Center Honors” have been presented under that longstanding, historic name for the final time. (Or at least for the last time for the next three years.) To the surprise of probably few people, the awards program will henceforth be known as “The Trump Kennedy Center Honors,” in keeping with the effort of the board installed by President Donald J. Trump to rebrand everything related to the institution with his name.
The show will also take place at an alternative, smaller venue for at least the next couple of years, and not at the historic hall in Washington, D.C. that was had its own name change to give the president top billing, under authority that is still disputed by many experts.
The program “will definitely go forward,” said Richard Grenell, the president of the center, in an interview with D.C. news radio station WTOP. “It will probably just be in a smaller venue, which just means ticket demand will be even higher.”
The new location for “The Trump Kennedy Center Honors” “is yet to be determined,” but “we’re already looking for different places,” Grenell told the news station.
The Washington Post confirmed Grenell’s radio revelation about the name change and move with representatives of the center on Saturday.
The reason the show will have to find a different home is due to the fact that the Kennedy Center – or Trump Kennedy Center, depending on where you stand — is set to close for a couple of years for an extensive and controversial overhaul. Grenell’s announcement of the closure, scheduled to take place this year, followed a series of news reports about withdrawals from the center by cultural institutions or individual artists that left its calendar for 2026 severely underpopulated. Some who have decried the politicization of the center under the Trump administration have held that the highly unexpected move to submit the center to an extensive makeover is a cover for the inability to draw top acts and full houses amid the current polarization, although Grenell has maintained that it is because the building is dilapidated.
The most recent broadcast of what was then still called “The Kennedy Center Honors” was hosted by Trump and saluted artists who have a friendly relationship with the president. Trump said that he wanted to weed out “wokesters” from receiving the honors, and noted that the five recipients — Kiss, Sylvester Stallone, Gloria Gaynor, George Strait and Michael Crawford — “all went through me.”
The president predicted that the first “Kennedy Center Honors” to feature him as host and curator., broadcast on Dec. 23 on CBS and Paramount+, would be “the highest-rated show that they’ve ever done.” That did not come to pass, as the 48th annual show delivered the lowest ratings in the history of the program. It was down by 26 percent from the year before, with Nielsen reporting an average 4.1 million viewers.
The ratings were not a concern to the center, according to Roma Daravi, VP of public relations for the center, who said in a statement: “Comparing this year’s broadcast ratings to prior years is a classic apples-to-oranges comparison and evidence of far-left bias… The program performed extremely well across key demographics and platforms, despite industry and timing disadvantages, including a Tuesday air date two days before Christmas… With overall television usage down roughly 20% year over year, the broadcast still tied for the No. 1 spot among adults aged 25–54, alongside a live NBA doubleheader.”
Trump spoke to the news about the Kennedy Center’s impending closure at a February news conference, saying he plans to keep the exterior of the building as it is, but making no such promises for the interior. “I’m not ripping it down,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “I’ll be using the steel. So we’re using the structure.” Touting the $200 million renovation, he added, “It’s in very bad shape… sort of dangerous.” He promised the renovated center will feature “the highest-grade marbles, the highest-grade everything… I think there won’t be anything like it in the country.”
Naturally, many eyes will be on not just where the “Trump Kennedy Centers” lands as it exits its longtime home, but who the president will secure for a second set of hand-picked or -chosen recipients in the arts. Most of the honorees selected for the 2025 honors do not have fan bases that would likely rise up against them being associated with Trump, although the band Cheap Trick, which performed in honor of their old friends in Kiss, suffered a significant backlash on social media just for playing at the event.
Grenell has argued that is only the left that is politicizing the center, although he is not shy about sharing his political beliefs as director, sometimes using his X account to post dozens of pro-MAGA or anti-Democrat tweets per day.
