Earlier this week, a federal judge said for a second time Donald Trump’s name could not be added to the exterior of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the “living memorial” to the murdered 35th president on the banks of the Potomac in Washington, DC, because only Congress could order such a change. In response, the Trump administration closed the building down.
The next day, Trump said of the center: “It’s a mess. The Kennedy Center for many years has lost tens of millions of dollars, even hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s a loser financially… For me to go and fix it, I’m the one capable of fixing it and then have to subsidize it for years to come, because you will lose with the Kennedy Center, they were losing hundreds of millions of dollars and sometimes hundreds of billions, this is before I got involved.”
So Zeteo asked the Kennedy Center for its 2025 tax return, which was filed last month.
Handed over, it showed that while Trump’s claims about the center’s finances being in a perilous state may now be accurate – a slide reporting by the Washington Post has shown to have happened since the president took over the institution – he is both lying about previous losses and hiding his own deliberate financial assault.
The tax return does not show the Kennedy Center perpetually losing “hundreds of millions” or “sometimes hundreds of billions.” But it confirms issues, particularly around Trump’s takeover.
As of Sept. 30, 2025, the Kennedy Center had record net assets of $778 million. The center reported $517 million in revenue last year, and $210 million in revenue less expenses.
But if not for untapped appropriations from Congress – $257 million as part of Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill – the center would have been in the red. That’s because it listed a $48 million “bad debt expense” in its tax return. 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.
First Draft: The Kennedy Center Lost $30 Million in Pledg...
Tax records obtained by Zeteo show the Washington cultural landmark writing off lots of debt as Trump struck. Up by the White House, a senior House Republican sounds a midterms alarm.
a r e
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f u c k i n g
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did I type slowly enough for you?
all this, to get his name on a fucking building that has absolutely nothing to do with him?
he's like a dog trying to piss on everything in site... and a colossal narcissist
but he's 'your guy'...
By
Crnr2Crnr ·
