President Trump has threatened to tear down the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., claiming that its finances and 1960s-era building are beyond repair (unless, that is, his name can be added to the iconic structure, allowing him to work his financial magic). Some supporters have questioned his characterization of the condition of the building, saying it simply needs basic repairs, and now an analysis of the center’s internal documents by The Washington Post raises questions about Trump’s financial management of the institution.
“In the 19 months since President Donald Trump took over the Kennedy Center, the institution has borrowed everything its bank would lend it, dipped into money donors had given on the condition it never be spent and written off pledges from supporters who stopped paying,” the Post’s Federica Cocco and Naema Ahmed wrote Wednesday.
Based on a review of confidential board documents and tax filings, analysts at the Post, along with outside experts, concluded that the Kennedy Center was in decent financial shape when Trump took it over in early 2025.
“This was a pretty stable — large, complicated, but stable — organization,” Karen Gahl-Mills, an expert in arts management at Indiana University, told the Post. “It had a hard time during the pandemic, lots of people did. And it was pretty stable at September 30, 2024.”
The center, which functions as a non-profit and was never intended to turn a profit, has long been kept afloat by a mix of ticket sales and donations. When Trump took control of the Kennedy Center in February 2025, replacing board members with supporters who promptly named him chairman, ticket sales and donations started to decline. Ticket sales are expected to fall by two-thirds this year, and donations were down 40% in the first four months of the year.
Part of the problem has been the sharp reduction in the center’s payroll, with the development staff slashed from 96 to 14 by Richard Grenell, who served as director under Trump for about a year.
“This is unusual, that this organization has gone this far south, this fast,” Gahl-Mills said. “It’s not the thing we typically see. It is an organization clearly in distress.”
It’s not possible to get a complete picture of the center’s finances, though, because it hasn’t published its 2025 audited accounts, which should have been made public in March.
The center did not respond to questions on the matter submitted by the Post. Gahl-Mills said the trustees need to step in. “Where is the board?” she asked. “This is a place that belongs to all of us, not a place that belongs to one person.”