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Since Trump's takeover the Kennedy Center's ticket sales have collapsed [1]
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Date: 2025-09-06
"Everything Trump touches dies" — Rick Wilson
On Feb 7, 2025, Trump announced he was taking over the Kennedy Center. In a post on Truth Social, he declared that "at his direction," DC's Cultural icon was going to be "GREAT AGAIN." To that end, he planned "a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!" He finished by writing that "THE BEST IS YET TO COME"
Spoiler alert: “THE BEST” closely resembles “THe WORST.”
On Feb 12, 2025, he followed through with his threat. His hand-picked board unanimously elected him as their Chair.
On Aug 14, 2025, he completed the spread of his malignancy as he announced that he would host the Center's best-known event — the annual Kennedy Center Honors.
No doubt the MAGAs, the vast majority of whom will never visit the once august institution, thought that all of this was a fabulous idea. However, it turns out that many potential patrons, who in different times would have bought tickets, have made other plans.
Quelle surprise! This ticket carnage is what happens when a vulgarian unleashes himself on the sublime. It is like having a refractory youth repair your Rolex with a hammer and chisel.
The Guardian reported on this predictable state of affairs in a piece titled: Kennedy Center ticket sales take a nosedive after Trump takeover. The article's subhead provides an example: Prestigious Stuttgart Ballet likely to face 80% empty seats at DC's premier arts venue as audiences' vote with their feet'
The article begins:
Ticket sales at the Kennedy Center have continued to plummet following Donald Trump's takeover of Washington DC's premier performing arts venue, with the prestigious Stuttgart Ballet expected to dance next month to houses less than 20% full. Audiences are "voting with their feet to skip out" on shows that would once have been packed, in protest at the US president inserting himself into the Center's management and operations as its new chairman, amid discussions around the notion of renaming it after Trump, according to an analysis by the Washingtonian magazine.
Washingtonian Magazine concurred with the Guardian’s analysis and added some detail:
Although most of the Kennedy Center's 2025–26 dance programming was contractually locked in before President Trump took over leadership of the Center in February, Washington audiences are voting with their feet to skip out. Ticket sales are so poor, the Stuttgart Ballet will be performing for an Opera House between 4 and 19 percent full when the German company comes to Washington early next month. BodyTraffic, the Los Angeles troupe booked for the smaller Eisenhower Theatre October 29 and 30, is at 12 percent capacity.
The magazine continued with more bad news for the new management:
Subscription revenue is down by about 50 percent, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, a Kennedy Center fixture, has opted to perform at the Warner Theatre instead.
Richard Grenell , the Center's interim President and a long-time Trump toady, is working on a solution for this sea of empty seats. It involves Jesus, which is appropriate because it will take a miracle. Washingtonian explains:
All this Sturm und Drang plays as Grenell pushes for a more middle-American Kennedy Center and pursues collaborations with the Museum of the Bible and the Christian Broadcasting Network.
I am no expert in these things. But I suspect that a religiously themed cultural center in DC may not be the draw the zealots think it will be. On the other hand, they have to try something. There isn't a single upcoming event at the Center that is close to being sold out.
If you are in Washington today, you can still go to Saturday night's performance of the Tony Award-winning musical Parade . There are 332 seats available — and that is in the smaller Eisenhower Theatre (1,161 seats). If you prefer The Sound of Music , there are still 928 seats available for Tuesday night's opening performance in the Opera House (2,364 seats).
Alternatively, on the following Tuesday, you can choose from the 1,151 seats still empty for the National Symphony Orchestra's Bee Gees retrospective Stayin’ Alive in the Concert Hall (2,465 seats) And let's note that number doesn't include seats in the upper two tiers — as management has not even bothered to put them on sale.
The orange dots are available seats — no need to rush (BTW, that’s a lot of dots. Is management underreporting the number of available seats?)
What an unmitigated cock-up
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