Ahead of the Trump administration’s plans to close the Kennedy Center for a two-year period for renovations from July 4, 2026, center staffers have been informed of imminent layoffs by center leadership. 

According to AP News, a 2025 tax filing states that nearly 2,500 people were employed at the Kennedy Center during the 2023 calendar year. 

“Departments will obviously function on a much smaller scale with some units totally reduced or on hold until we begin preparations to reopen in 2028,” Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell said, while promising “permanent or temporary adjustments for most everyone.”

He added that over the next few months, department heads will be “evaluating the needs and making the decisions as to what these skeletal teams left in place during the facility and closure and construction phase will look like,” and that center leadership would “provide as much clarity and advance notice as possible.”

In response, Kennedy Center staffers told the Washington Post that Grenell’s message signaled “preparation for mass layoffs.”

“The language of ‘renovation’ masks a leadership failure that has driven down ticket sales, donor confidence, and artistic participation. The crisis is self-inflicted,” said one anonymous staffer. “What’s being presented as a renovation is, in practice, a dismantling,” added another.

Prior to this announcement, the Kennedy Center Union Workers also protested the venue closure — a decision that is a reversal of Trump’s earlier statement in October 2025 that the center would remain open throughout the renovation process. 

While Trump has claimed that the renovations will culminate in a “Grand Reopening that will rival and surpass anything that has taken place with respect to such a Facility before,” neither he nor Grenell have provided evidence to support claims about the building being in disrepair. 

The last major expansion of the Kennedy Center was completed in 2019, when the venue underwent a $250 million expansion by Steven Holl Architects as part of the center’s REACH project. 

Though Trump’s announcement of the closure made no mention of them, many high-profile artists have withdrawn their shows from the center in the wake of the new leadership and subsequent fall in audience engagement, and in protest of Trump adding his name to the building’s exterior. 

“This renovation represents a generational investment in our future,” Grenell continued. “When we reopen, we will do so as a stronger organization — one that honors our legacy while expanding our impact.”

“Upon the completion of these upgrades, Americans and visitors from all over the world, for generations to come, will enjoy the Center and marvel at its spectacular features and design,” added White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.