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BumRushDaShow

(167,875 posts)
Mon Feb 2, 2026, 06:05 PM Feb 2

Trump will keep 'structure' of Kennedy Center intact during $200M in renovations

Source: The Hill

02/02/26 5:15 PM ET


President Trump said on Monday he intends to leave the basic structure of the Kennedy Center intact during upcoming renovations which are expected to last two years and cost upwards of $200 million.

“I’m not ripping it down. I’ll be using the steel,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office after announcing a new strategic mineral reserve for the American auto industry. “So we’re using the structure. We’re using some of the marble, and some of the marble comes down. But when it’s open it’ll be brand new and really beautiful,” he added. Trump noted that the renovations are expected to cost $200 million.

The comments come after Trump announced on Sunday that the Kennedy Center, which new the board that took over in the president’s second term voted to rename The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, would be closed for two years for a restoration project.

The announcement, like the name change, has drawn backlash from Trump’s critics and members of the Kennedy family. “While this trespass on the People’s will is painful, President Kennedy would remind us that it is not buildings that define the greatness of a nation. It is the actions of its people and its leaders,” former Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.), John F. Kennedy’s great-nephew, said in a post on X.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/5719313-trump-kennedy-center-renovation/



REFERENCES

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143609866
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143610123
37 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Trump will keep 'structure' of Kennedy Center intact during $200M in renovations (Original Post) BumRushDaShow Feb 2 OP
Does bimbo think any renovation will bring in more performers? vapor2 Feb 2 #1
Not going to happen........... Lovie777 Feb 2 #2
Trump's idea of beautiful C_U_L8R Feb 2 #3
He's going to bulldoze the Kennedy Center and put up a giant statue of himself astride the mall Simeon Salus Feb 2 #4
Shalom Baranes again, probably maxsolomon Feb 2 #5
We are heading towards the most tearing apart EVER after a president leaves office! bluestarone Feb 2 #6
How is he allowed to even poke a hole in wall without the Kennedy families approval? LiberalLovinLug Feb 2 #7
Somebody better get that beautiful bust of KatyaR Feb 2 #8
What, just coat it in gold paint and fig leaves? ananda Feb 2 #9
I imagine it will be covered with gaudy gold when he's through with it. Uncle Joe Feb 2 #10
He'll destroy the amazing JFK exhibit mcar Feb 2 #11
I have a feeling the most of the "renovations" Diraven Feb 2 #13
Yes. Damn them all mcar Feb 2 #21
It will be razed to the ground by St. Patrick's Day Prairie Gates Feb 2 #12
I don't know how to organize a mass demonstration AverageOldGuy Feb 2 #14
It will end up with cheap looking gold shit all over it mdbl Feb 2 #15
Yeah. Where's DOGE? travelingthrulife Feb 3 #37
Wait a minute... slightlv Feb 2 #16
Waste. Fraud. Abuse. Harker Feb 2 #17
Serious question jgmiller Feb 2 #18
I agree mdbl Feb 2 #19
Don't let the madman destroy the Kennedy Center. mountain grammy Feb 2 #20
Trump is a locust purr-rat beauty Feb 2 #22
Not one thing that beserko ever makes is beautiful. efhmc Feb 2 #23
It's toast, he's going to flatten it like the east wing. He is insane and evil. Blues Heron Feb 2 #24
Why does he have any say over it at all? LisaM Feb 2 #25
More bribes from billionaires. Klarkashton Feb 2 #26
I sure hope that someone is keeping tabs on EVERY FUCKING THING he is twisting, destroying, remaking, etc. Scalded Nun Feb 2 #27
PEDOnald: "I'm not ripping it down." area51 Feb 2 #28
Just like the East Wing renovation.... nt woodsprite Feb 2 #29
"Trump will keep 'structure' of Kennedy Center intact during $200M in renovations" LudwigPastorius Feb 3 #30
How is this allowed? lees1975 Feb 3 #31
We all can imagine MissHoneychurch Feb 3 #32
Inspired by a movie set. usonian Feb 3 #33
A) He's lying B) He's lying C) It'll look like excrement Kira_Thomsen-Cheek Feb 3 #34
It is not his structure to begin with. Botany Feb 3 #35
Fk Trump CaptainTruth Feb 3 #36

C_U_L8R

(49,196 posts)
3. Trump's idea of beautiful
Mon Feb 2, 2026, 06:15 PM
Feb 2

is an overwhelming application of gold tinsel from Home Depot after it's been vomited up by Russian hookers and fermented inside Donald's diapers for two weeks exactly.

Simeon Salus

(1,615 posts)
4. He's going to bulldoze the Kennedy Center and put up a giant statue of himself astride the mall
Mon Feb 2, 2026, 06:17 PM
Feb 2

where his statue can piss down the neck of visitors.

maxsolomon

(38,474 posts)
5. Shalom Baranes again, probably
Mon Feb 2, 2026, 06:21 PM
Feb 2

What a legacy he's carving for his firm. "We're the Architects who facilitated Trump's vision."

bluestarone

(21,819 posts)
6. We are heading towards the most tearing apart EVER after a president leaves office!
Mon Feb 2, 2026, 06:26 PM
Feb 2

I say bury this fucker in a garbage bag!! and dump him in a active volcano, so he's ready for HELL!!!

KatyaR

(3,635 posts)
8. Somebody better get that beautiful bust of
Mon Feb 2, 2026, 06:45 PM
Feb 2

President Kennedy out of there before he bulldozes it. My heart would be broken if he destroyed it, but I'm sure that's on his radar.

Uncle Joe

(64,713 posts)
10. I imagine it will be covered with gaudy gold when he's through with it.
Mon Feb 2, 2026, 07:14 PM
Feb 2


Thanks for the thread BumRushDaShow

mcar

(45,857 posts)
11. He'll destroy the amazing JFK exhibit
Mon Feb 2, 2026, 07:27 PM
Feb 2

and the interior architecture that makes it so special. I hate him.

Diraven

(1,862 posts)
13. I have a feeling the most of the "renovations"
Mon Feb 2, 2026, 07:42 PM
Feb 2

Will be removal of everything mentioning or showing Kennedy and replacing it with a shrine glorifying Trump.

AverageOldGuy

(3,634 posts)
14. I don't know how to organize a mass demonstration
Mon Feb 2, 2026, 08:10 PM
Feb 2

As a college student in Alabama in the 1960's I marched in Selma, Montgomery, and Birmingham. Since then I have marched an supported those who marched in all sorts of demonstrations.

As far as I know, you don't have to have a ticket to get into the Kennedy Center but you do have to have tickets to get into a performance.

So -- what would happen in, say, March, if one casual Saturday or Sunday afternoon hundreds of "tourists" started showing up -- in small groups of 2, 3, 4 ,6 ,7 -- each with a backpack or tote bag (with bottled water and sandwiches) and once inside EVERYONE SITS DOWN AND REFUSES TO LEAVE. Hundreds more could sit on the stairs, occupy the lawn, block the garage entrances and refuse to move.

We were told when marching in Alabama to "go limp." Don't move, just lie down and go limp. Make them pick you up. I know from experience it takes four cops to move one person.

No doubt the demonstrators would be removed by DC police or National Guard.

But what it if kept up? Crowds showing up every day, surround the place, allow no vehicles to enter . . . .

Probably not happen but surely someone here on DU has the contacts to make this happen.

We are in our 80s, we live 45 minutes out of DC, our daughter lives on Capitol Hill, we can bunk with her -- she's a high-powered DC attorney so she can get a lot of us out of jail.

Just sayin'.

Or what if a few old, grey-haired couples pulled this stunt? Would hundreds or thousands take the hint and descend on the Kennedy Center an save the place?

mdbl

(8,423 posts)
15. It will end up with cheap looking gold shit all over it
Mon Feb 2, 2026, 08:13 PM
Feb 2

Why isn't Congress stopping this? The GOP is always railing about Dems wasting money but not a peep about Dump's egregious spending for no good reason.

slightlv

(7,613 posts)
16. Wait a minute...
Mon Feb 2, 2026, 08:20 PM
Feb 2

we can't spend any of our tax dollars to help people afford healthcare and their meds... or help everyone afford food now that the tariffs have screwed us all... but we're so awash in OUR money that he feels free to kill the WH East Wing, renovate the Kennedy Center, AND built a huge ass Hitler-arch to himself. Kennedy Center says $200M... the East Wing is way above that... and by the time they get the gold plating onto that stupid arch (you KNOW he's gonna want that!), he will have absolutely bankrupted the country just to leave his name all over the trash in the city. It'll cost at least that much and twice more to tear it down and rebuild our institutions reflecting grace and good trash. I'm so tired of his gilt-loaded white trash ideas.

If he's going to spend all this money on everything I don't agree with... then, I'm gonna do a MAGA and scream for MY tax dollars back to me to spend as I see fit. I'm not giving him a wink and nod with my money to kill people via ICE, or put out complete surveillance teams on everyone in the U.S., ala Musk. Enough is enough. Cut off his money. If he wants shit, HE can pay for it (if he actually has any liquid assets, that is).

jgmiller

(680 posts)
18. Serious question
Mon Feb 2, 2026, 08:48 PM
Feb 2

The Kennedy family and certainly Maria Shriver alone has more than enough money and connections to do to Trump exactly what he always tries to do to everyone else, sue, sue, sue. So why haven't they done exactly that yet? I know they don't own the center but the public does and since they are part of the public they should pile on the lawsuits on him. They can slow this insanity down until he is gone or until he decides he's bored with it. Just constantly letting him come up with these idiotic plans and saying "You can't do that!" doesn't do anything. Use his own methods against him.

Blues Heron

(8,568 posts)
24. It's toast, he's going to flatten it like the east wing. He is insane and evil.
Mon Feb 2, 2026, 09:22 PM
Feb 2

But you can’t kill an idea and the spirit of the memorial will live on somehow some way.

LisaM

(29,579 posts)
25. Why does he have any say over it at all?
Mon Feb 2, 2026, 09:52 PM
Feb 2

I don't recall previous Presidents interfering with DC infrastructure.

Scalded Nun

(1,643 posts)
27. I sure hope that someone is keeping tabs on EVERY FUCKING THING he is twisting, destroying, remaking, etc.
Mon Feb 2, 2026, 10:46 PM
Feb 2

Every penny needs to be recovered, to include the cost of returning things to their previous state.

area51

(12,621 posts)
28. PEDOnald: "I'm not ripping it down."
Mon Feb 2, 2026, 11:15 PM
Feb 2

Since he lies all the time, and claimed he wouldn't touch the east wing, yet he detroyed it, he may indeed be planning to tear it down.

LudwigPastorius

(14,457 posts)
30. "Trump will keep 'structure' of Kennedy Center intact during $200M in renovations"
Tue Feb 3, 2026, 12:03 AM
Feb 3

He will not "keep the structure". He will demolish it.

It won't cost $200M. It will be double that, at least.

He will have his name carved in marble on a structurally necessary wall, so that it will be harder to remove it, unlike the current lettering.

MissHoneychurch

(33,617 posts)
32. We all can imagine
Tue Feb 3, 2026, 01:54 AM
Feb 3

how this will look after those "renovations". All tacky and over the top and ugly as hell. And I am sure the concert halls will all be named after Trump and his family.

34. A) He's lying B) He's lying C) It'll look like excrement
Tue Feb 3, 2026, 06:03 AM
Feb 3

In 1980, this lying sack of shit common hooligan bought the Bonwit Teller Building, saying he was gonna preserve the gorgeous Art Deco panels on the front. He did not. He had his crew throw them in the skip, rather than give the to the Met. Cheap trashy bastard DESTROYED art and LIED about it. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/donald-trump-bonwit-teller-friezes-met-2132673

I have a really bad feeling about this... and I don't even particularly like the style of the Kennedy Center. I think it's a bit naf, really - very 1960s, which is not my favorite decade. But it IS A NATIONAL TREASURE and does not need any cheap tacky gold plating, FFS. He's going to destroy it - and blow his budget - mark my words.

Why can't this mouth breathing buffoon be impeached and slung out on his ass??? JD is horrible, but at least all he'd do is install a couch.

Botany

(76,881 posts)
35. It is not his structure to begin with.
Tue Feb 3, 2026, 06:19 AM
Feb 3

It doesn’t need any renovations or work by a man who is illegally occupying the White House
after a dirty election.

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