Broadway legend Patti LuPone stood on the Carnegie Hall stage Monday night and told the audience exactly what she thinks about Trump's Kennedy Center renovations.
The 76-year-old actress wrapped her concert and then launched into a furious speech demanding the audience flood social media to stop Trump from touching the Kennedy Center.
She called the President a "buffoon" and urged protesters to "rise up and speak" – but what LuPone didn't count on was the White House response that came hours later.
Kennedy Center Closure Reveals $250 Million In Deferred Maintenance Democrats Ignored
Trump announced Sunday the Kennedy Center will close July 4, 2026, for a complete renovation that officials say the building desperately needs to survive.
The center faces $250 million in deferred maintenance – broken elevators, failed HVAC systems, and infrastructure problems that piled up for 10 to 15 years under previous leadership.
Roma Daravi, the Trump Kennedy Center's vice president of public relations, didn't mince words when she explained what Democrats left behind.
"Decades of gross negligence left this institution with a broken budget, $100 million operating deficit, $26 million bottom-line deficit, and $250 million of deferred maintenance needs," Daravi said.
In less than one year, Trump balanced the budget, raised over $130 million from donors, and secured $257 million from Congress to fix what entertainment industry leftists ignored while the building crumbled.
Tony Award Winner's Long History Of Trump Attacks
This isn't the first time LuPone attacked Trump over the Kennedy Center.
She told The New Yorker last year the center under Trump "should get blown up" – twice saying she wanted to see the building destroyed rather than renovated under this administration.
Back in 2017, LuPone said on a Tony Awards red carpet that if Trump ever attended one of her performances, she would refuse to go on stage.
When asked why, her response was simple and vulgar: "Because I hate the motherfucker, how's that?"
Now she's rallying her Carnegie Hall audience to protest renovations the building needs to function.
Trump made clear Monday he's not tearing the building down despite LuPone's hysteria.
"I'm not ripping it down," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "I'll be using the steel. So we're using the structure."
White House Demolishes Her Argument
The White House delivered a response that exposed exactly what LuPone and her leftist friends refused to do while the Kennedy Center deteriorated.
White House assistant press secretary Liz Huston said: "While the Democrats neglected the Trump-Kennedy Center for years, President Trump immediately stepped up to rescue and revitalize the institution. President Trump is taking decisive action to modernize the facility, bring it into full compliance with all building standards, and optimize visitor flow for a world-class experience."
The statement continued: "Under President Trump's leadership, the Trump-Kennedy Center will be the finest performing arts facility in the world and everyone will be able to enjoy the success, beauty, and grandeur for years to come."
Daravi fired back even harder at LuPone's Carnegie Hall tantrum.
"For decades, America's cultural center deteriorated as entertainment industry Leftists sat back and did nothing to save it," Daravi said. "Now, the Chairman of the Trump-Kennedy Center is revitalizing the institution through a fully-funded renovation it desperately needs while holding onto the building's cultural significance."
Then Daravi used LuPone's own words against her.
"As Ms. LuPone pointed out, 'art is the soul of the nation,' and this historic renewal and beautification effort will give all Americans a place to come together and celebrate artistic excellence that uplifts and unites, rather than divides," Daravi added.
The Artist Boycott Pattern Hollywood Won't Admit
LuPone joins a long list of artists who canceled Kennedy Center performances after Trump took control – Hamilton, Béla Fleck, Philip Glass, Issa Rae, and dozens more.
They all claimed Trump was destroying the venue by adding his name and taking over the board.
But ticket sales were already cratering before the renovation announcement because these same leftist performers were boycotting the center and refusing to perform.
Their boycotts killed ticket sales, made the renovation closure inevitable, and now they're protesting the very crisis they created.
Trump named himself chairman of the Kennedy Center's board after firing the previous leadership in early 2025, and the board voted unanimously to rename it "The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts" in December.
Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell praised Trump's leadership and the congressional funding that made the renovations possible.
"It desperately needs this renovation and temporarily closing the Center just makes sense – it will enable us to better invest our resources, think bigger and make the historic renovations more comprehensive," Grenell said. "It also means we will be finished faster. President Trump has a reputation for delivering large construction projects on time, under budget and beautifully finished."
LuPone and her Broadway friends had decades to raise money for Kennedy Center repairs.
They had decades to fix the broken elevators and failing HVAC systems.
They had decades to address the maintenance backlog that threatened the building's survival.
They did nothing – and now they're furious Trump stepped in to save it.
Sources:
- Madison Colombo, "Broadway icon Patti LuPone calls the president a 'buffoon' over Trump-Kennedy Center renovation plans," Fox News, February 4, 2026.
- "Trump-Kennedy Center details massive repairs, warns venue won't survive without fixes," Fox News, February 3, 2026.
- "Broadway Icon Patti LuPone Tells 'Buffoon' Trump to Lay Off Kennedy Center," The Daily Beast, February 4, 2026.
- "Trump hints at dramatic Kennedy Center renovations that will leave steel 'fully exposed,'" CNN Politics, February 2, 2026.
- "Kennedy Center to close 2 years for Trump renovation project beginning July," Fox News, February 3, 2026.