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The iconic Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. will undergo a two-year renovation, effective July 4th, by presidential decree. President Trump used Truth Social on Sunday to declare the closure a tribute to America's 250th anniversary. The announcement comes as the institution, now known as the "Trump Kennedy Center," faces a growing boycott from artists protesting its recent renaming, raising questions about its future cultural programming.
Shortly after taking office, the presid
ent fired several of the board members at the centre and replaced them with allies, who then voted to make Trump chairman of the board.
The new board renamed the institution the Donald J Trump and the John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in December. New signage appeared on the building's exterior the following day.
Several musical acts, including Wicked composer Steven Schwartz and a group called Doug Varone and the Dancers, cancelled performances at the centre in the following weeks because of the name change.
On Thursday, the venue hosted a premiere screening of a documentary about First Lady Melania Trump.
The US president said there would be a "scheduled grand reopening" of the facility and that the renovations had already been financed.
"I have determined that The Trump Kennedy Center, if temporarily closed for construction, revitalisation, and complete rebuilding, can be, without question, the finest performing arts facility of its kind, anywhere in the world," he wrote.
"In other words, if we don't close, the quality of construction will not be nearly as good, and the time to completion, because of interruptions with Audiences from the many events using the facility, will be much longer."
Trump had lambasted the physical state of the centre and had worked with the US Congress to allocate more than $250m to rebuild it, one of many renovation projects he has taken on in his second term.
Some US lawmakers and legal scholars have argued that, because the centre was named in a 1964 law, Congress must have a say on any name change.
Last December, Democratic US Representative Joyce Beatty filed a lawsuit seeking to remove Trump's name for that reason. Some members of President John F Kennedy's family have also denounced the move.
The centre was named in Kennedy's memory shortly after his assassination.
Joe Kennedy III,
