Ticket sales and fundraising have fallen sharply as the cultural center faces a projected US$23 million deficit.

On Tuesday, The Washington Post (TWP) published an article showing that the Kennedy Center’s finances plunged after U.S. President Donald Trump added his name to that of the cultural institution.

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Ticket sales and fundraising plummeted, despite center officials insisting that the cultural center’s finances were in good shape.

“The terrible financial situation at the Kennedy Center is due to the Trump name and his takeover of the Center. No one wants to attend. No artists want to entertain there. No one wants to donate to the corrupted institution,” Phillipson Institute Forum to Educate and Inform commented on X.

Control of the Kennedy Center has become one of Trump’s main objectives since he returned to the White House for a second time in January 2025.

And now…The Trump-appointed board of the Kennedy Center will be putting his name BACK on the building. What are we doing here America?! pic.twitter.com/kIFxGkMn41

— PoliticsGirl (@IAmPoliticsGirl) August 25, 2026

Since then, ticket sales had already declined, but the drop came after the center’s board of directors, led by Trump, voted in December to change the center’s name in his honor and place his name on the building’s facade.

Even after cutting expenses, Kennedy Center officials projected that the institution’s own-source revenue for this fiscal year would fall 70% short of the budget target and that donation revenue would come in 25% below projections. The center would be left with a US$23 million deficit.

The economic damage to Washington’s leading cultural center adds to the legal battle it has faced over the past several months. The decision to add Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center was overturned by a federal judge on May 29 in a ruling that pointed to the measure’s illegality.

The judge determined that the U.S. Congress was the body that chose the cultural institution’s name and, therefore, was the only one with the legal authority to change it. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” the judge wrote in a ruling that was enforced last June.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE

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