Trump says the Kennedy Center is ‘a great danger.’ Don’t tell the National Symphony Orchestra
Por Alex Woodward — – World RSS Feed
Trump says the Kennedy Center is ‘a great danger.’ Don’t tell the National Symphony Orchestra
The National Symphony Orchestra’s use of the main concert hall appears to undermine the president’s dire descriptions of a venue he wants to rename after himself
Alex Woodward in New York Wednesday 07 October 2026 20:38 BST
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Donald Trump declared the Kennedy Center “a great danger” to anyone who walks inside. Government lawyers have argued, in increasingly dire terms, that the institution is in a “state of collapse” and “physical ruin,” is “dangerously dilapidated,” and is “fundamentally unsafe to employees and patrons alike.”
That’s not keeping away members of the National Symphony Orchestra, who continue to rehearse inside the beleaguered performing arts center in Washington, D.C., despite the president’s attempts to close it down unless federal courts let him name the memorial after himself.
The 100-plus members are rehearsing in the Kennedy Center’s main concert hall for upcoming fall performances, according to The New York Times, which spoke to several performers as they hauled their gear into the building.
None of them reported any imminent risk of collapse, despite sworn statements from administration officials and court documents in the legal battle over the building’s future. One musician told the newspaper that she hopes colleagues would “shut up” and focus on music, not politics.
Last month, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to provide at least 30 days’ notice before making any physical changes to the Kennedy Center — including demolishing it — after the venue’s Trump-controlled board voted to shutter the venue for repairs.
open image in galleryMatt Floca, the venue’s Trump-appointed director, decided to “temporarily” close the Kennedy Center due to “acute risks to public safety resulting from continued structural deterioration” of the building, according to the Department of Justice.
But musicians have been allowed into the building via “routes assessed as safe by facilities and management,” a spokesperson told The Times.
David Z. Seide, a lawyer representing Kennedy Center employees, said the fact that the orchestra is allowed to rehearse inside the building confirms “what we’ve been saying all along. The building is not a threat to public health and safety.”
The symphony and the center’s Opera House Orchestra are only paid performances that have survived the president’s takeover. The symphony has performances scheduled in nearby cities throughout the fall and into 2027, while the Opera House Orchestra performs at the Kennedy Center’s annex The Reach.
Trump, meanwhile, isn’t ruling out tearing down the venue.
“I’m not committing to anything,” he recently told TIME.
open image in galleryThe Justice Department, meanwhile, wants to stop a federal judge from forcing the government to share details about the president’s role in the Kennedy Center’s planned two-year closure.
Government attorneys told U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper on Tuesday that requests for documents are “unnecessary and massively burdensome.”
“Enough is enough,” lawyers wrote.
Lawyers for Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, who is leading the legal challenge against Trump’s attempts to rename the building and close it down indefinitely, accused the Justice Department of “stonewalling” requests for information.
Unless the judge intervenes, the Trump administration “will be allowed to curate the record and hide the truth,” Beatty’s lawyers wrote.
Last month, the Kennedy Center’s Trump-controlled board voted to close the venue within hours after Judge Cooper blocked the institution from trying to add the president’s name to the building — again — after members proposed renaming it “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts renovated and restored by Donald J. Trump.”
Trump, who appointed himself the board chair last year, then announced on Truth Social that the building will close “immediately,” and he won’t begin his much-touted, multi-million dollar renovation project unless courts agree to let him put his name on it.
Kennedy Center officials insist that the venue is only “temporarily” closing to assess its “advanced deterioration,” and will decide whether to continue closing the venue every seven days.
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Donald TrumpKennedy CenterTruth SocialDepartment Of Justice
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