Thousands of people demonstrated outside the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., joining a protest called “Hands Around the Kennedy Center,” according to DW. Participants gathered in the Foggy Bottom area carrying signs, singing and holding hands in a human chain around the arts institution.
Placards included messages such as “hands off Kennedy Center.” The demonstration took place near an area where workers removed President Donald Trump’s name from the building in June, following a court order. A judge ruled in May that the name had been added illegally and ordered its removal, DW reported.
The Kennedy Center was inaugurated in 1971 after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It has become a focus of Trump’s plans for Washington since 2025. Trump has advocated major renovations, saying the building was left in serious disrepair by those previously responsible for it.
DW quoted Neal Racioppo, a Washington resident who works in theatre marketing and communications, as saying the prospect of demolition made him “sick” and that Trump did not have the right to decide whether an institution described as a living memorial could be demolished. Local arts community member Bud Wilkinson said the center was vital to Washington’s arts scene.
Wilkinson also argued that the dispute was not only about Trump’s name being placed on the building, but about what he described as the censorship of performances and programming. The source did not provide specific examples of performances or programmes affected by such changes.
Trump’s handpicked Kennedy Center board voted last year to rename the institution the Trump-Kennedy Center. On Wednesday, Trump appeared to suggest that the building could be torn down if his administration did not receive what he called “recognition.” He said that without such recognition, the center could close and be “ripped down,” adding that it was in “very, very bad” and dangerous condition.