‘I Won’t Step Foot In There’: Trump’s Kennedy Center Takeover Has Left Ticket Sales So Bad They’re Giving Seats Away — But That’s Only Half the Story

Donald Trump, 80, hijacked John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last year, a living memorial for the 35th president.

The center for is open now, but hardly anyone wants to enter following the presidet’s plans to shutter it from 2026 through 2028 for renovations.

The doors were supposed to close in July, but U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper threw the plan into limbo with a May ruling to keep it open.

Trump’s takeover included installing a new board to support his agenda, appointing himself chair of the panel, and adding his name to the center.

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Cooper also ruled that the center’s original name be restored. He said the the renaming overstepped Congress.

A large scaffolding and a tarp have obstructed the front of the building since June, when “Donald J. Trump and” was removed.

The center now has until Aug. 20 to explain why the tarp remains in place and its construction plans.

“Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into NEVER NEVER LAND,” the president whined on Truth Social.

Even now, with his hands off of the cultural center, things have become so bad that visitation remains low.

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There’s also been a drastic decline that began last year after artists began pulling out of scheduled performances.

Volunteer guide Sandy Weiswasser has been giving free tours of the theaters and artistic spaces for 18 years. She told The New York Times, “This place used to be really thriving and busy and crowded. Now it’s a black hole.”

The center formerly welcomed 400,000 visitors a year for tours and boasted 140 guides. Now, Weiswasser is one of at least five people who show up, sometimes leading groups of just three around campus.

“Even friends of mine would say, ‘I won’t step foot in there,’” she said, noting Trump as a catalyst for the decline in guests. “And I would say, ‘Yeah, but you’re only hurting the performers,’” the former teacher said.

The box office’s last-ditch effort to lure people back inside reportedly includes giving away free tickets.

A critic snapped, “Taco man will never fill Kennedy shoes. Once taco man’s gone everything he has his name on will torn down or removed.”

Another said, “Ranting and raging unhinged Maniac tarnished and destroyed Kennedy center totally but let’s all hope when low IQ is gone Kennedy center will regain its glory and glamor.”

Some people described the situation as “heartbreaking,” arguing that Trump destroys everything he touches and is draining the joy from the country. Yet some had more pressing questions, “When is that tarp coming down?”

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Another commented, “It is impossible to go to Kennedy Center because the Trump-picked board is not booking shows and the National Symphony Orchestra can’t plan a season.”

The National Symphony Orchestra performed its last show of the 2026 season on June 12. NSO has called the Kennedy Center home for over five decades.

Ben Folds, the former NSO artistic advisor, resigned in February 2025 after Trump co-opted the venue. Folds testified that Trump’s agenda to politicize art created a “partisan toxic environment” during a July 21 Congressional hearing.

He said, “I could not trust that artists I booked at the Kennedy Center would be safe from retribution if they said or sung something that might displease the president or his political lackeys who now controlled the center.”

The biggest events held at the center under Trump’s rule have been the “Melania” documentary screening in January and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor gala in June honoring comedian Bill Maher.

‘I Won’t Step Foot In There’: Trump’s Kennedy Center Takeover Has Left Ticket Sales So Bad They’re Giving Seats Away — But That’s Only Half the Story