President Donald Trump's closure of the Kennedy Center proved he lost a "bad bet" — and was the result of an error that he can't stop making, an Atlantic writer warned.

A year ago, Trump assumed control of Washington, D.C.'s premier performing-arts institution. Despite never attending a show there, he expressed confidence in his singular ability to determine the venue's direction, wrote David A. Graham.

Instead, he announced over the weekend that the center will go dark on July 4 for two years — an implicit, even if covered up, acknowledgment of failure, Graham wrote. And Trump's dealings with the arts center reflected a consistent pattern — believing his judgment supersedes expert opinion and that a "silent majority" supports his interventions.

"It turns out, though, that a 79-year-old New York–born billionaire whose tastes run to gilded accents and kitschy musicals isn’t a good proxy for either the general population or arts patrons in Washington," Graham wrote......

Ticket sales have collapsed dramatically. The Washington Post found, "43 percent of tickets remained unsold for the typical production. That means that, at most, 57 percent of tickets were sold for the typical production." This compares unfavorably to fall 2024, when 93 percent of tickets were sold or given away. Despite Grenell's directive that only profitable shows be booked, the center is driving patrons away. CNN reported the Kennedy Center could not book performances for next season.

Trump believed his personal taste would make the venue wildly popular," Graham wrote. Instead, his taste proved disconnected from Washington arts patrons' preferences. Popular culture has remained "stubbornly indifferent to MAGA aesthetics."

"Trump keeps making a version of this error," Graham wrote. "His first term was a series of overreaches, all confidently executed in the belief that the silent majority would back him. Instead, he lost in 2020. His second-term win renewed his overconfidence. Now he believes that because many Americans wanted tighter border security, they will also support violent crackdowns in the streets of American cities; instead, his immigration approval keeps sinking.