President Donald Trump’s claim that the Kennedy Center he’s now threatening to demolish was losing “hundreds of billions” of dollars before he “got involved” was exposed Friday as a blatant lie after Zeteo obtained a copy of the center’s 2025 tax returns.
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Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center hit a snag in June after a federal judge ordered the president’s name be removed from the iconic building. Trump’s name has since been removed from the center’s facade, though Trump and his aides have renewed efforts to return the president’s name to the building’s signage.
Trump’s oft-repeated rationale for his takeover of the Kennedy Center has been the institution’s supposed financial struggles, which he’s described as dire. The center’s newly released 2025 tax returns, however, reveal that Trump “is both lying about previous losses and hiding his own deliberate financial assault,” Zeteo reported Friday.
“Program revenue declined by $16 million and pledges and grants declined by $30 million in the seven or so months after Trump began his Kennedy Center takeover. That was before he added his name to the building, a move that reportedly caused ticket sales and donations to plunge much further,” Zeteo’s report reads.
“Interestingly, the tax return says that as of Sept. 30, 2025, roughly $330 million in federal appropriations — $310 million allotted for capital repair and restoration, and $20 million for operations and management — were being ‘held by [the] U.S. Treasury.’”
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A recent photo of Trump aboard Air Force One showed the president reading a placard that appeared to read “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED,” sparking a flurry of court filings to halt the administration from demolishing the iconic performing arts center.
And, while a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to give more than 30 days notice ahead of making any changes to the center — including its destruction — Zeteo’s Martin Pengelly and Andrew Perez feared that may not be enough to stop the president.
“Trump has shown us who he is, and what he is liable to do, voices of authority be damned,” reads Zeteo’s report, authored by both Pengelly and Perez. “The saga of Trump vs. the Kennedy Center is not over yet. Not by a very long shot.”
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