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Bulwark Takes

Is Trump Going to Demolish the Kennedy Center?

Bulwark Takes

The Bulwark

News, Society & Culture, Politics, News Commentary

4.71.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2026

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

JVL and Sonny Bunch give their takes on Trump’s sudden decision to shut down the Kennedy Center for two years after politicizing it, slapping his name on it, and driving ticket sales to historic lows. They break down how an iconic, nonpartisan arts institution ended up with pandemic-level attendance, why artists and audiences fled, and how a pathetic vanity project backfired spectacularly.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, everybody. Great news. Donald Trump is doing another East Wing.

0:04.6

Going to do a very, very powerful and strong, some would say beautiful East Wing on the Trump Kennedy Center.

0:10.4

I'm JVL here with my bulwark colleague, Sunny Bunch. And Sunny, yesterday, we got a truth announcement from the president of the United States saying,

0:22.9

after a one-year review of the Trump Kennedy Center that has taken place with contractors,

0:29.4

musical experts, art institutions, and other advisors and consultants, deciding between

0:34.5

either construction with closure and reopening or partial construction while continuing

0:39.4

entertainment operations through a much longer period of time, working in and around performances.

0:44.7

I have determined that the Trump Kennedy Center, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

0:48.5

He's closing it.

0:49.8

He's closing it for two years.

0:51.9

And he is going to then reopen it. And it's going to be the Trump Kennedy Center will be returned to the highest level of success, beauty, and grandeur, and with a scheduled grand reopening that will rival and surpass anything that has taken place with respect to such a facility

1:11.7

before. I have so many questions, Sonny. Do you want to offer preliminary thoughts?

1:18.2

I don't know that I will have answers for you, Jonathan, V. Last, but I will try. I will try.

1:23.1

Had it been suggested anywhere else prior to this truth tweet that there was going to be a gigantic

1:31.2

renovation? No. That there were plans undergoing and consultations and specta. Were there

1:37.3

bids put out for this? Were their hearings held? Are there, is there a draft somewhere with

1:44.0

computer renderings of what it was to look like?

1:47.7

No?

1:49.2

Bueller.

1:49.6

I don't, I don't, I don't think so.

1:52.0

That doesn't sound like something that happened.

1:54.5

No, I, look, here's, I don't think anybody expected this.

...

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