{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://pingree.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=6704", "The Kennedy Center Belongs to the American People. Trump Thinks It Belongs to Him.", "2026-02-04", "2026", "2026-02", "Democrat", "House", "ME", "Chellie Pingree", "P000597", "pingree.house.gov", "pingree", "https://pingree.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "Op-Ed published on MSNOW\n\nPresident Donald Trump\u2019s decision to close the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for \u201can approximately two year period of time\u201d \u2014 which he announced via Truth Social on Sunday \u2014 underscores the profound damage he\u2019s doing to this iconic institution.\n\nSetting aside the sheer financial incompetence that led to this crisis, Trump\u2019s callous disregard for the history, mission and legacy of the Kennedy Center should alarm every American.\n\nAnd that includes members of the president\u2019s party. I hope my colleagues across the aisle recognize that we must recoup the power the president has usurped from Congress. A good start would be working with Democrats to restore a cultural institution that was created for the benefit of all Americans, and named in honor of one president (not the current one).\n\nThe National Cultural Center was established by Congress in 1958, renamed in honor of John F. Kennedy shortly after his death, and opened to the public in 1971. For more than 50 years, it has celebrated artistic excellence, fostered creativity and reflected Kennedy\u2019s steadfast belief that equitable access to the arts is essential to democracy.\n\nSince taking office, President Trump has repeatedly demonstrated utter contempt for that mission and vision, treating the Kennedy Center not as a national trust, but as another institution to be bent to his personal vanity.\n\nOne year ago, Trump announced he was firing several members of the Board of Trustees and installing himself as chair. In the weeks and months that followed, the center\u2019s programming was marred by sudden cancellations, behind-the-scenes political interference and growing concerns from artists about ideological litmus tests. By June, the effects of Trump\u2019s hostile takeover were already being felt. According to reporting by The Washington Post, the center faced a 82% decline in theater subscriptions, a 57% drop for ballet packages and a $1.6 million decline in overall ticket sales.\n\nRather than see these numbers as a clear sign to reverse course, Trump and his loyalists have chosen to double down: attempting to name the center\u2019s opera house after first lady Melania Trump, continuing to politicize its programming, and \u2014 most absurd of all \u2014 illegally renaming it the \u201cTrump-Kennedy Center.\u201d Now, he wants to close the center for two years while he makes \u201cmajor renovations\u201d \u2014 presumably without any input from Congress.\n\nConsidering it took less than 24 hours after the board \u201cvote\u201d for him to plaster his name on the building, and that he demolished the East Wing of the White House in a matter of days without proper approval or regard for historical significance, it\u2019s entirely possible that he could decide to just bulldoze the entire center to remake it in his own, tacky image. Just look at what he\u2019s done to the Rose Garden and the Oval Office.\n\nLet\u2019s be crystal clear: The Kennedy Center is a national cultural institution established by Congress, and is statutorily named the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. No board vote or social media post has the legal authority to change that without an act of Congress.\n\nThese are the facts. Any claim to the contrary \u2014 whether from Trump himself, or one of his far-too-many Republican enablers \u2014 is either a willful lie, or a staggering misreading of the law.\n\nDr. Charlotte Canning, the Frank C. Erwin Centennial Professor of Drama at the University of Texas at Austin, is one of the country\u2019s foremost experts on the Kennedy Center. For her, Trump\u2019s takeover underscores the stark contrast between what the center represents, and the president\u2019s bizarre obsession with dictating the terms of cultural engagement.\n\n\u201cThe Kennedy Center was designed to embody national unity, generosity and connection,\u201d Canning explained. \u201cEven before Kennedy\u2019s assassination, the two parties recognized the Center as a venue for all Americans, reflecting the spirit and soul of the country. Its mission has always been about the common good, not individual aggrandizement.\u201d\n\nSadly, Trump\u2019s takeover of the Kennedy Center is part and parcel of a broader effort to politicize our cultural institutions, rewrite our shared history and cast himself as the indispensable centerpiece of the American story.\n\nIn just the past few months, Trump has renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace after himself; bulldozed the East Wing of the White House to make room for a $300 million vanity ballroom; draped several federal buildings with banners of his own face; and generally treated the federal government as an extension of his personal publicity machine.\n\nAnd that\u2019s before we get to the reckless \u2014 and often illegal \u2014 cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and countless other agencies that support education, art and culture \u2014 all because they don\u2019t fit Trump\u2019s narrow and twisted view of what these words mean.\n\nBut it\u2019s his takeover of the Kennedy Center \u2014 one of our greatest cultural institutions and our only memorial in D.C. dedicated to JFK \u2014 that shows how far Trump is willing to go to bend our public institutions to his will.\n\n\u201cThe Kennedy Center\u2019s programming and outreach are designed to include all Americans, and represent the country as broadly as possible,\u201d Canning said. \u201cThese actions by the President directly undermine that mission.\u201d\n\nAmericans \u2014 including JFK\u2019s family \u2014 are rightfully appalled by Trump\u2019s garish and egomaniacal fixation on the Kennedy Center. They are fed up that he keeps getting away with blatantly illegal actions and disgracing our historical and cultural institutions.\n\nCongress has the power to fight back. We can and we must reassert the statutory protections that safeguard the center\u2019s name and mission, and ensure that federal funding and governance support the institution\u2019s original purpose rather than a partisan agenda. And we need Republicans to step up. Just because he has the unmitigated gall to act without consent of the law \u2014 or of the People\u2019s House \u2014 doesn\u2019t mean that whatever he says, goes.\n\nThe Kennedy Center is a living monument to a man who fervently believed in the emancipatory power of art and culture. It\u2019s a legacy our current president clearly doesn\u2019t understand \u2014 and has no right to usurp for himself.\n\nI will do everything in my power to ensure he doesn\u2019t.", 1, "2026-04-04T05:28:40Z", "2026-04-04T05:30:10Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://pingree.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=6704"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8831708692014217, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}