It’s Not Just Matching Shoes. Trump Team Has Matching Rolexes Too.

By September 30, 2025, the center recorded $517 million in revenue and $778 million in net assets, though its position was aided by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which extended $257 million to buoy the institution. Behind the scenes, program revenue had declined by $16 million, and pledges and grants declined by $30 million, according to the center’s 2025 return obtained by Zeteo.

Three months later, Trump slapped his name on the building’s facade, an illegal decision that tanked ticket sales and donations at the performing arts center. Nonetheless, Trump’s revised Kennedy Center board asserted that adding Trump’s name to the building was the only way to ensure the space could avoid “certain fiscal collapse.”

Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the Kennedy Center could not be renamed to include “Donald J. Trump” on its exterior. He noted that Congress singularly arbitrates the name of the Kennedy Center, which was erected to memorialize the assassinated President John F. Kennedy.