EXCLUSIVE: Kennedy Center Is $40 Million In Debt, Will Make Major Cuts

The Kennedy Center is $40 million in debt, and will soon begin “reducing expenses” to address its “difficult” financial situation, The Daily Wire has learned.

Kennedy Center Chief Financial Officer Donna Arduin emailed staff at noon Wednesday “in the spirit of transparency” to share “the difficult reality of our current financial situation.”

“For years, the Kennedy Center has been budgeting to lose money. Instead of balancing our bottom line, we have spent all the funds that were raised on paying off part of The REACH debt, leaving us $40 million in debt with no cash to pay our bills,” she wrote.

REACH is a multipurpose space that includes rehearsal spaces, studios, and more, which President Donald Trump criticized on a recent visit to the site.

“The road out of this economic environment will not be easy and the shift will be felt across the Center,” Arduin added.

SCOOP: Kennedy Center’s newly-instated CFO just alerted the entire staff that it’s $40M in debt and has “no cash to pay our bills”

“The road out of this economic environment will not be easy and the shift will be felt across the Center”

Here’s the letter: pic.twitter.com/fso3wovjaa

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) March 26, 2025

Trump has made it a priority to reform the Kennedy Center, firing its board and installing himself as its chairman. Trump also tapped Special Envoy Rick Grenell to serve as the Center’s interim director.

“At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. , GREAT AGAIN,” Trump wrote in February. “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP.”

But Arduin’s letter makes it clear that the Kennedy Center’s largest problems have little to do with its repertoire.

“We have an operating deficit of over $100 million dollars,” she wrote to staff, “and are roughly $225 million dollars behind on capital maintenance needs, projects which are long overdue.”

Arduin notes that she and other Kennedy Center executives “are on a mission to turn this amazing performing arts center around.”

To get the Center out of the red, Grenell “has hired new Department leaders with lower salaries than those they replaced, including his salary which is dramatically lower than the previous President’s.”

The CFO also said that the Kennedy Center “will adopt business practices with performance goals to bring accountability to our patrons and philanthropists.”

“Therefore, we are reducing expenses enterprise-wide and will be using Key Performance Indicators to drive business decisions going forward.”

It is unclear exactly what cuts the Kennedy Center will make to rectify its financial situation. But the severity of Arduin’s letter, combined with the Trump administration’s dedication to reducing the scope of the federal workforce, could imply that layoffs are imminent.

Some have already begun. The Center on Tuesday laid off its five-member “social impact team,” the Washington Post reported. The team’s mission was “to advance justice and equity” through Kennedy Center performances.

This is a developing story, refresh this page for updates.