Seized, subverted, shuttered: a year in Trump’s assault on the Kennedy Center

Since a presidential post on Truth Social the Washington DC arts hub has lost its leadership, had its name changed and will now be closed for years

The Brentano String Quartet had finished their performance when a special guest dropped in backstage: the US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We thanked her for everything she had done for our country," recalls violinist Mark Steinberg. It was a nice moment."

The year was 2016 and the place was the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. Fast forward a decade and old certainties have been shaken: Ginsburg is dead, Donald Trump is president and the Kennedy Center has become a case study in how a seemingly solid American institution can quickly unravel.