Leftists flocked to the Kennedy Center on Friday, forming a human chain around the facility, which faces an uncertain future amid President Donald J. Trump’s threats to demolish it.
Hundreds of activists turned out to link arms in a showing of solidarity and defiance of Trump, demanding his removal as chairman. Last year, the president ousted the Kennedy Center board and replaced them with his own appointees, eliciting much shrieking from leftists who are going to go absolutely berserk if he sends in the bulldozers.
Crowds gather at the Kennedy Center to protest President Trump’s proposed changes. pic.twitter.com/qkc15Ze4gY
— Andrew Leyden (@PenguinSix) September 19, 2026
“The demonstration opposes the recent sudden closure of the facility, the installation of security fencing, and political efforts to alter or demolish portions of the presidential memorial,” the group behind the protest stated, according to ABC News.
“Hands off!”
“Hands Around the Kennedy Center” rally in Washington, DC. pic.twitter.com/o2g10JJNAz
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 19, 2026
The battle over the beloved but deteriorating venue escalated this week after an Obama-appointed judge again thwarted efforts to prominently display Trump’s name on the building, which opened in 1971, way back when Richard M. Nixon was president.
Trump has demanded that the facility be renovated and has made its long-overdue overhaul one of his top priorities but has insisted that he be given the proper credit that he feels he deserves for fixing a building he has described as “rusted, rotted, and rat and bug infested,” among other things.
The president has yet to order the walls to come down, but the Democrat mob swaddled in pink descended on the Kennedy Center like it’s their Alamo, even toting around one of the inflatable Trump babies.
They’re holding hands around the Kennedy Center like it’s the Alamo.
Right now outside they’re singing Solidarity Forever and planning to link arms around the whole building. Over a renovation. Over a name. The ceiling has been dumping plaster for years, and suddenly it’s a…
— Gunther Eagleman
(@GuntherEagleman) September 18, 2026
A massive group of demonstrators is currently forming a human chain around the Kennedy Center following Trump’s threats against it pic.twitter.com/DbAF43ZevY
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) September 18, 2026
On Friday, Trump branded U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper as “a very hostile judge” after the Obama appointee ordered the administration and the Kennedy Center to provide 30 days’ written notice before making physical changes to the building, including demolishing it.
Speculation that Trump is going to go through with it is at a fever pitch after a picture of him onboard Air Force One reviewing a placard reading went viral on social media.
AFP/Getty Images: President Trump reviews what looks like a potential plan to demolish the Kennedy Center on Air Force One. pic.twitter.com/8p5v9nnIhI
— Politics & Poll Tracker
(@PollTracker2024) September 17, 2026
Democrat lawfare king Norm Eisen and attorney Nathaniel Zelinsky, who are representing ex-officio Kennedy Center board member Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) in her lawsuit against the administration, accused Trump of “holding the Kennedy Center hostage.”
Trump declined to divulge whether he plans to have the Kennedy Center torn down when asked about it in the Oval Office on Friday, only insisting that he deserves credit for trying to save it.
“I think the Trump administration should be recognized as having saved the Kennedy Center because nobody else remembers,” the president said.
