The Kennedy Center Honors will be awarded for the last time under its long-standing name. (The last for at least the next three years.) To the surprise of few, the awards program will now be known as the Trump Kennedy Center Honors. This follows an initiative by the board established by President Donald J. Trump to name everything associated with the agency after him.
The show will also be held, at least for the next few years, at an alternative, smaller venue rather than the uniquely renamed Historic Hall in Washington, D.C., to best reward the president, although that privilege is still debated by many experts.
Richard Grenell, the center’s director, said in an interview with Washington, D.C., news radio station WTOP that the program “will definitely move forward.” “Maybe just being held in a smaller venue means there will be even more demand for tickets.”
A new location for the Trump Kennedy Center Honors “has not yet been determined,” but “we are already looking for another location,” Grenell told the news station.
The Washington Post confirmed Grenell’s radio revelations about the name change and relocation with the center’s representatives on Saturday.
The reason the show has to find another home is due to the fact that the Kennedy Center (or Trump Kennedy Center, depending on where you stand) is scheduled to be closed for several years for a major and controversial overhaul. Grenell’s closure announcement, expected this year, follows a series of reports about cultural institutions and individual artists leaving the center as it faces severe depopulation in 2026. While some critics of the center’s politicization under the Trump administration argue that the center’s highly unexpected move to overhaul it is a cover for its inability to attract top artists and sold-out audiences amid the current polarization, Grenell contends it’s because the building is aging.
The latest broadcast of what was then still called Kennedy Center Honors was hosted by President Trump and paid tribute to artists with whom the president has been friends. President Trump said he wanted to exclude “wake stars” from receiving the honor, noting that the five recipients of the award — Kiss, Sylvester Stallone, Gloria Gaynor, George Strait and Michael Crawford — “all went through me.”
The president predicted that the first Kennedy Center Honors, which will air Dec. 23 on CBS and Paramount+ and will feature him as host and curator, will be “the highest-rated show ever aired.” That didn’t happen, as the 48th annual show had the lowest ratings in the show’s history. Nielsen reported an average audience of 4.1 million viewers, down 26% from the previous year.
Roma Daravi, vice president of communications for the center, said in a statement that ratings were not a concern for the center. “Comparing this year’s broadcast ratings to last year is a classic apples-to-oranges comparison and evidence of far-left bias…The show performed extremely well across key demographics and platforms despite industry and timing disadvantages, including a Tuesday broadcast date two days before Christmas…Despite a roughly 20% year-over-year decline in overall TV usage, the broadcast is still tied for the No. 1 spot among adults 25-54, along with a live NBA doubleheader. ”
President Trump spoke to reporters about the Kennedy Center’s impending closure at a press conference in February, saying that while he intended to maintain the building’s exterior, he would not make any promises about the interior. “I’m not tearing it down,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re going to use steel, so we’re going to use structures,” he said, touting the $200 million renovation, adding: “It’s in very bad shape… it’s dangerous in some ways.” He promised that the renovated center would have “the finest marble, everything is of the highest quality…I don’t think there’s anything like it in this country.”
Naturally, much attention will be focused not only on where the Trump Kennedy Center will land after leaving its longtime home, but also on who the president secures a second arts field, or select recipients. Most of the honorees chosen for the 2025 honor don’t have the kind of fan bases that would be repulsed by their association with Trump, but Cheap Trick, the band that played in Kiss’ tribute to their old friend, received significant backlash on social media just for playing at the event.
Although Grenell claims it’s only the left that politicizes the center, he’s not shy about sharing his political beliefs as director, sometimes posting dozens of pro-MAGA and anti-Democrat tweets a day using his X account.
