Taylor Swift thanks Swifties while receiving inaugural MTV VMA Artist Director Honors - Entertainment Weekly

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump walk the red carpet before last year’s Kennedy Center Honors. The event is moving to Capital One Arena after the center’s closure. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson / Associated Press) Staff Writer Oct. 2, 2026 1:07 PM PT Click here to listen to this article See more from the L. A. Times in Google Search. Set us as preferred The 49th Kennedy Center Honors gala will go on despite the recent closure of the Kennedy Center, with the event moving to the Capital One Arena in Washington, D. C., on Dec. 7. The honorees and a broadcaster for the program will be disclosed at a later date. The annual event will take place amid an ongoing legal battle as President Trump attempts to add his name to the building. Hours after a federal judge blocked the president’s attempt to restore his name, the Kennedy Center’s board voted on Sept. 15 to shutter the venue for renovations. Trump, however, threatened on social media to block the $250-million renovation, which he initially proposed, if his name weren’t added to the facade.

This year's Kennedy Center Honors will be held at Washington's Capital One Arena, not the riverfront building that's been at the center of a legal fight over adding President Donald Trump's name to the building. The 49th annual awards are set to take place at Washington's downtown arena, a Kennedy Center spokesperson said Friday. Few other details were immediately available, and an explanation for the change wasn't given.

Val Chmerkovskiy is being suspended from Dancing with the Stars for a week after he posted a controversial TikTok message that seemed to reference Will Smith's 2022 Oscar slap.