Barbra Streisand Rips Trump's 'Unchecked Ego'

Barbra Streisand said it is “galling and painful” to watch the Kennedy Center become the subject of a bitter fight over Donald Trump’s name, blaming this week’s closure on a “thoroughly defeated Trump” and a board stacked with his appointees.

In a post on her personal website, the singer and 2008 Kennedy Center honoree called President John F. Kennedy a “true champion of the arts” and the building “one of America’s great cultural venues.” 

She said a federal court had ordered Trump’s name removed from the facade and that “a humiliated Trump ordered a large tarp placed over the façade, where it remains today.” Streisand noted that there was “oddly” no talk of closing the center while his name was still on it.

She framed the dispute as a “bitter struggle over one man’s name and unchecked ego” and urged Americans to vote in the midterms, without endorsing a party. Quoting Kennedy’s view that a society loses its vitality when creativity cannot flourish, she wrote that this was “yet another reason why it is so important that Americans exercise their right to vote.”

The comments follow a ruling by U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper blocking the center from inscribing Trump’s name on the marble facade without congressional approval. Trump responded on Truth Social that needed renovations will not proceed until a court reverses the decision and has threatened to demolish the building, calling it dilapidated. 

On Thursday, Cooper ordered the board to give 30 days’ notice before any construction changes, including possible demolition. Trump’s appointed board has argued his name must be added to help raise renovation funds.