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The
49th annual awards are set to take place at Washington's
downtown arena, a Kennedy Center spokesperson said Friday. Few
other details were immediately available, and an explanation for
the change wasn't given.
The center's board voted last month to close the iconic
performing arts venue along the Potomac River waterfront after a
federal judge blocked the institution from returning Trump's
name to the building.
Trump has said in social media posts that the center needed to
close for safety repairs. But he said the repairs would only
happen if the board was allowed to move forward with plans to
add his name to the building.
A federal judge has twice said that can’t happen without the
approval of Congress, which has allocated $257 million for
repairs.
The president hosted the 2025 awards, whose honorees included
Sylvester Stallone and George Strait. He said at the time that
he would rename the facility the “Trump Kennedy Center,” and not
long after workers began adding his name to the building.
The board of trustees, named by Trump, voted unanimously for the
change, which has been challenged in court since.
Congress named the performing arts center as a living memorial
to John F. Kennedy in 1964, the year after he was assassinated.
The law explicitly prohibits the board of trustees from making
the center into a memorial to anyone else, and from putting
another person’s name on the building’s exterior.
The Kennedy Center Honors, which recognize people for lifetime
contributions to American culture through the performing arts,
was established in 1978. The 2026 honorees are set to be named
at a later day, the center's spokesperson said. The event will
take place on Dec. 7.
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