Photo: Rick Maese/The Washington Post

Nowhere is there a greater metaphor for Donald Trump’s policies, priorities, and unfulfilled ego than the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington’s cultural cathedral showcasing artists from around the world.

When Trump took control of the Kennedy Center, he removed much of its board, installed allies, and the newly constituted board immediately elected him chairman. Then he set about remaking not only who ran the institution, but whom it honored and what appeared on its stages.

It didn’t take long for our national cathedral to begin looking like a shrine that resembled the ruined monument to Trump’s self-aggrandizement in Shelley’s Ozymandias—built as a testament to one man’s greatness, only to become a symbol of his arrogance and failure.

Trump brought in Richard Grenell, his combative former ambassador to Germany, to remake the Center. Major staff cuts followed. The fundraising operation was slashed from more than 90 employees to fewer than 20. This at an institution that depends heavily on private donations. Donors pulled back. Performers canceled. Ticket sales fell off a cliff.

Then Trump made himself host of the Kennedy Center Honors honoring Sylvester Stallone and KISS. During the festivities, Trump jokingly called the building the “Trump Kennedy Center.”

Then came the name change.

The board voted to rename it the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. Never mind that memorials are generally reserved for the dead, Trump’s name now stood above that of the slain president for whom Congress had created the center as a living memorial.

Then came the lawsuit.

Trump’s lawyers argued that adding his name merely recognized his contributions to the institution. But in May, a federal judge ruled that Congress had named the Kennedy Center and only Congress could change that name.

Trump’s name came down.

Trump’s board came up with a workaround, a sign inscribed: “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.”

The judge ruled the workaround didn’t work.

Now, Grenell was out and Matt Floca, the Center’s former facilities chief, was in. Sections were closed. Tours ended. Then a five-foot section of plaster fell from the Grand Foyer ceiling during a storm.

Then came the whistleblowers.

Congress had appropriated $257 million specifically for Kennedy Center repairs, restoration, deferred maintenance and security. Yet whistleblowers now allege that some already-funded repairs were halted, including work on a deteriorating roof, and that money designated for waterproofing was redirected in part to cosmetic work like repainting the white columns out front. Kennedy Center management disputes the whistleblowers’ account.

So what happened to the $257 million?

The Atlantic obtained the Kennedy Center’s Form 990 tax filing covering October 2024 through last September. The $257 was added into Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Now Trump is threatening to pull it unless he gets something in return.

The board’s message was simple: Trump’s name goes on the building—somewhere—or else.

Then the “or else” happened. Trump raised a drastic possibility: perhaps it should be torn down.

Congress did not authorize its demolition.

However, after Trump’s demolition of the White House East Wing, supporters of the Kennedy Center weren’t inclined to take chances. Some 1,500 people formed a human chain around the Center, not simply to protest, but to stand guard over an American institution they feared might be next.

Then came a photograph of Trump aboard Air Force One studying a document bearing the words “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED.”

Now, the nation’s premier center in our nation’s capital for the arts is shuttered and barricaded; a place where stages once came alive every day is now dark. Donors, performers and audiences have backed away. More than 2,000 people have lost their jobs.

Even if the building survives, rebuilding the staff, fundraising operation, programming, and audience could take years. By the time Trump is finished with it, will there be a Kennedy Center left to save?

Which brings me back to Ozymandias.

Washington has no shortage of monuments, and Donald Trump wanted his share. He wanted a golden Oval Office. He got it. He wanted a golden ballroom. It’s more than 50 percent complete. He wanted a triumphal golden arch. It appears to be moving forward.  And he wanted his name carved into the Kennedy Center.

Meanwhile, while he busies himself with the trappings of royalty, the nation is concerned with other issues.

When will his unilaterally initiated war with Iran end?

Trump brings in his son-in-law—a real estate broker to broker a deal that has remained broken for months.

When will the cost of living come down?

Asked to grade his handling of the economy, Trump gave himself an A-plus, plus, plus, plus, plus—apparently having exhausted the grading scale before solving the problems.

When will all this end?

Sorry, the President’s schedule is full: the arch, national park signage, construction where none was intended, rewriting history at the Smithsonian, and a championship golf course already costing scores of trees, including a cherry tree, and threatening Washington’s oldest grove of Japanese cherry trees.

And now…his Meme Coin Gala.

To call Trump the most openly corrupt, self-glorifying president in American history would be stating the obvious–like saying Richard Nixon was not brought down by Watergate, but the “Deep State.”

Oh, wait…