List of Kennedy Center Artist Cancellations Following Trump’s Name Inclusion

A 55-year partnership dissolved on January 9, 2026, when the Washington National Opera announced its departure from the Kennedy Center—the performing arts institution where it had staged productions since the venue opened in 1971. The break followed months of turmoil after President Donald Trump dismissed the center’s original board in February 2025, appointed himself chairman, and installed 34 political allies who voted to affix his name to the building’s exterior. What emerged was not merely an institutional split, but a constitutional crisis testing the boundaries between presidential authority and Congressional law.

A Renaming That Defies Federal Law

The rupture intensified when Trump’s reconstituted board voted December 18, 2025, to rename the venue “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” Workers added Trump’s name to the facade the following day. Yet the 1964 National Cultural Center Act explicitly designated the institution as “the sole national memorial to the late John Fitzgerald Kennedy within the city of Washington and its environs,” and federal statute prohibits the board from adding another person’s name without Congressional approval. Georgetown Law professor David Super stated unequivocally: “There is absolutely no way they can do this legally.”​

Representative Joyce Beatty filed suit December 22, 2025, alleging she was silenced during the board meeting when attempting to voice opposition. “I said, ‘I have something to say,’ and I was muted,” Beatty told reporters, “and as I continued to try to unmute, to ask questions and voice my opposition to this, I received a note saying that I would not be unmuted.” Her lawsuit seeks judicial intervention to void the decision and remove Trump’s name from the building.​

Financial Crisis and Artistic Rebellion

The Kennedy Center’s crisis extended far beyond legal disputes. Between September and October 2025, approximately 43 percent of seats went unsold—a dramatic increase from just 7 percent during the same period in 2024. The Kennedy Center Honors broadcast on December 23, 2025, drew only 3.01 million viewers, representing a 26 percent decline from 2024’s already-record-low 4.1 million viewers. Trump had personally hosted the ceremony after predicting viewership would “soar” under his leadership.​

Richard Grenell, the former ambassador to Germany whom Trump appointed as Kennedy Center president, instituted a “break-even policy” requiring every performance to generate profit. The Washington National Opera faced a new requirement: productions must be fully funded years in advance. Since opera companies typically cover only 30 to 60 percent of costs through ticket sales, depending on grants and donations that cannot be secured years before performances, the policy proved operationally incompatible.​

Artists responded with mass departures. The Cookers jazz ensemble canceled their New Year’s Eve performance immediately after the renaming announcement. Doug Varone and Dancers withdrew their April 2026 engagement, and Chuck Redd ended his annual Christmas Eve performance after a continuous run since 2006. Folk singer Kristy Lee explained her cancellation: “When American history begins to be treated as something that can be banned, erased, renamed, or rebranded for someone else’s vanity, I cannot stand on that stage and feel right at night.” Earlier in 2025, actress Issa Rae, “Hamilton” producers, and musicians Ben Folds and Renée Fleming had already canceled engagements or stepped down from advisory roles.​

The Kennedy Family Speaks

Kennedy family members condemned the decision with remarkable unity. Maria Shriver, President Kennedy’s niece, declared: “It is beyond comprehension that this sitting president has sought to rename this great memorial dedicated to President Kennedy. It is beyond wild that he would think adding his name in front of President Kennedy’s name is acceptable. It is not.” Former Congressman Joe Kennedy III emphasized the center’s protected status: “The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law. It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says.”​

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now serving as Health and Human Services Secretary, broke from family consensus, stating he had “bigger fish to fry” and prioritized health issues over “the name on a building.” His remarks highlighted his political alignment with the Trump administration despite family opposition.​

What Lies Ahead

The Washington National Opera now faces the formidable challenge of finding a new permanent home capable of accommodating large-scale productions with specialized technical requirements. The opera claims joint control over its $30 million endowment under the original affiliation agreement, though Kennedy Center officials dispute this interpretation. Artistic director Francesca Zambello, who has led the company for 14 seasons, expressed deep sadness while affirming the opera’s commitment to its mission.​

The American College Theater Festival has suspended its decades-long relationship with the Kennedy Center, declaring the affiliation “no longer viable.” Kennedy Center officials characterized these departures as “financially necessary,” with Grenell stating that “having an exclusive Opera was just not financially smart.”​

Beatty’s lawsuit remains pending in federal court with no trial date set. Additional artists continue evaluating their relationships with the renamed venue as the spring 2026 performance season approaches. What began as a board vote on December 18, 2025, has evolved into a fundamental test of whether presidential authority can override Congressional statute, and whether America’s premier cultural institutions can maintain independence from partisan control. The outcome will determine not merely the Kennedy Center’s future, but potentially the fate of every federally protected memorial across the nation.​