Thousands of demonstrators formed a human chain around the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on the evening of Friday, September 18, 2026, in defiance of President Trump’s threats to close and possibly demolish the Potomac River landmark. So many riders poured out of the subway that the crowd overflowed into the streets of Foggy Bottom and stopped traffic as it pushed toward the building for a rally billed as “Hands Around the Kennedy Center.”
Hands Linked Around the Center
Hands Off the Arts, the coalition behind the gathering, lined up musical performances, testimonials and speeches on the center’s steps before the chain took shape. Actor Lynda Carter and Virginia Rep. Don Beyer both addressed the rally, and boos went up whenever Trump was mentioned during the program. Many demonstrators turned out in costume, carrying signs reading “You’re No Jack Kennedy” and “Hands Off the Arts.” Organizers said turnout — estimates ranged from roughly 1,500 to over 2,000 — could have circled the building at least twice had police fencing installed that day not blocked part of the perimeter; instead, protesters wrapped what they could, joined hands and called for Trump’s removal as chairman for failing to protect and manage the institution.
Chalkboards, Hearts and What Was Lost
Bud Wilkinson, a member of the local arts community, carried a chalkboard scrawled with Trump’s name hundreds of times over; protesters took turns rubbing the names out and chalking hearts in their place. “The Kennedy Center is vital to the arts in Washington. We need it. We need this,” Wilkinson said, framing the fight as being about more than whose name goes on the facade — also, he said, about censorship of performances and programming.
A Judge Steps In
The demonstration capped a week of escalation. The Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board voted Tuesday, September 15, to close the center indefinitely, hours after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper had ruled the board could not restore Trump’s name to the building. On Wednesday, September 16, Trump told reporters the complex could be “ripped down” if his name didn’t appear on it — remarks made the same day he was photographed aboard Air Force One appearing to study a printout that read “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED.” Attorneys for Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, who sits on the board in an ex officio capacity, submitted both the remarks and the photos to Cooper’s court. By Thursday, September 17, Cooper had ruled that the board cannot demolish or significantly alter the building without 30 days’ advance notice, denying Beatty’s request for a faster emergency hearing.
A Longer Fight Over the Building
The center has sat at the center of Trump’s remaking of Washington since February 2025, when he ousted its leadership, installed his own board and made himself chairman weeks after his second inauguration. That board voted in December 2025 to fold Trump’s name into the institution’s title; the new signage went up shortly after. Cooper ruled in May that only Congress could authorize such a change, calling the renaming illegal, and Trump’s name came down by mid-June. The White House separately argues the 55-year-old building needs extensive, costly renovations; critics instead point to the wave of performers, board members and private funders who exited after Trump’s takeover, and to falling ticket sales that followed.
Hands Off the Arts co-founder Chris Raleigh said he hoped the rally would show how many people are prepared to fight the administration’s plans for the building. “Look at the East Wing,” he said, comparing it to the sudden demolition of the White House’s East Wing weeks earlier. “We got up one morning and there was a giant hole there.” He said he doesn’t think the president fully understands why people are so upset — “but that’s our job, right? This may be the line that no one expected, but this is where the line is going to be.”
As of this writing, the center remains closed and Cooper’s 30-day notice order stands; the administration has not announced a start date for any construction.