In Washington, temples to Trump’s ego lie ruined. And another is on the way

It was deathly quiet outside the John F. Kennedy Memorial Centre for the Performing Arts on Friday afternoon. Ordinarily, the storied cultural institution would have been preparing for an evening of performances: an opera, perhaps, or musical theatre.

Instead, the building was closed, its white Italian marble exterior surrounded by scaffolding, temporary chain-link fences and security guards patrolling the perimeter.

The Kennedy Centre – so named for the assassinated Democratic president – was abruptly shuttered last week following a vote by its board. The board is chaired by President Donald Trump, who gutted the previous board and installed loyalists with the explicit intent of making him chair.

The centre’s closure did not change much, in practical terms. The only programming on Friday night was a free, unticketed show by “master illusionist” Michael Grandinetti, which proceeded at an expansion site outside the main Kennedy Centre building.

That is because artists and arts lovers have largely given the Kennedy Centre a wide berth since Trump began taking over the venue last year and had his name inscribed on the side of the building. Performers cancelled shows, donors withdrew and ticket sales nosedived.

Last October, The Washington Post calculated 43 per cent of tickets remained unsold for the typical autumn production. Things have only gotten worse since. Staff and programs have been slashed, and the budget is in disarray.

This giant of American cultural life – and a living memorial to one of the country’s slain presidents – now lies empty and sad. It is a cautionary tale; a temple to the tragedy of ego.

The stalemate may continue. Trump secured the money, $US257 million, from Congress for a major two-year renovation, which he and his board argue is sorely needed. But he is refusing to begin the work unless he can put his name back on the building.

It’s not just his name; court documents show Trump is insisting on three things. One is changing the plaque on the front of the building to read: “The John F. Kennedy Memorial Centre for the Performing Arts, renovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump.”

Second, when his Trump Kennedy Centre Fund reaches an endowment of $US100 million, he proposes to add: “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Centre Fund” to the plaque. Finally, he wants to name the surrounding area “President Donald J. Trump Plaza”. The board approved these proposals last month.

Last week, a federal judge appointed by Barack Obama, Christopher Cooper, put a stop to this. He is the same judge who last year ordered Trump’s name be taken off the building, as Congress had named it in honour of President Kennedy alone. Now, he said, the administration “plays word games” to try to skirt the ruling.

“Alone means alone,” Cooper ruled. “The board cannot honour both President Kennedy and President Trump without running afoul of the terms of the injunction and the board’s own governing statute.”

Trump has defended this narcissism by arguing he is saving the Kennedy Centre from certain ruin. He says he raised the $US257 million from Congress himself (“they gave it to me because it’s me”) and would have to keep raising funds after he leaves office because the centre has always lost money.

“That place is a dump. It’s been a dump for years. I’m ready to fix it,” he said. “I think the Trump administration should be recognised as having saved the Kennedy Centre because nobody else can do it.”

One may well scoff at the idea of Trump, who somehow paid no income tax for many years, fundraising for the arts after he departs the White House.

And if the centre was such a dangerous “dump”, why was it chosen to host the FIFA World Cup draw late last year, a major event attended by Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and FIFA president Gianni Infantino?

The building may be deserving of a renovation – and nobody is opposing that – but there’s no doubt Trump and his acolytes have milked that for all it’s worth. When a five-foot piece of ceiling plaster collapsed during a storm this month, the debris wasn’t cleaned up: as The New York Times reported on Sunday, staff “left the mess on the carpet for nearly two weeks”, documenting it as part of a brief on the building’s decay.

One need not venture far to see another victim of Trump’s egomania. Down at the National Mall, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is still blocked off by fencing – more than two months after it was drained again to repair a botched job by the contractor.

No work was being done on Saturday morning when this masthead visited, although bobcats and trailers sat strewn around the pool’s barren surface and on the nearby grass. What was once a rush job to be finished for Independence Day is now languishing in the incomplete basket.

And across the river, Trump has just announced that his planned Triumphal Arch will be stuffed with drones, snipers and ammunition, turning it into a “military complex”. This was apparently at the military’s request, despite the Pentagon being a stone’s throw away.

There is an obvious reason for this change – Trump has learnt from the White House ballroom that declaring something a security necessity can generate a lot of leverage. The courts allowed him to continue work on the underground military parts of the ballroom while pausing work on the above-ground sections.

Washington is a grand city of monuments to American endeavour and excellence. This president wishes to turn them into monuments to his own ego, or, as things stand, leave them to rot when he cannot get his way.

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