Chaos at the Kennedy Center: Everything That Happened This Year Under Donald Trump
SOURCE:Rolling Stone|BY:Jon Blistein
Board takeover, cancellations, protests, and a legally dubious name change marked Trump's first year in charge of the famed cultural institution
Though it’s far from the mostderangedorobscenething to happen during the first year of Donald Trump’s second stint in the White House, the fight over the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has certainly been one of the weirdest and most ridiculous.
Almost immediately after taking office again in January, Trump moved to take over the preeminent cultural institution. In an effort to make the Kennedy Center “GREAT AGAIN,” as he wrote on Truth Social back in February, Trump gutted the center’s bipartisan board, installed a crony as interim executive director, and — to cap it all off — made himself chairman. In December, Trump’s handpicked board voted to add the president’s name to the building, with the new signage going up on the facade even as the move was flagged as legally dubious.
All of this has prompted waves of criticism and backlash. Many artists have canceled Kennedy Center concerts, while others have stepped down from advisory roles. Trump, for his part, appears to be relishing the takeover, even serving as emcee of this year’s Kennedy Center Honors ceremony. The president’s obsession with the Kennedy Center also isn’t surprising: It’s exactly the kind of reputable, star-studded space long frequented by people who’ve never cared much for Trump; and his desire to remake the Center in his own image speaks to the theory that, maybe all of this could’ve been avoided, if Trump had just become a successful Broadway producer.
With more insanity likely to come in 2026, here’s a rundown of everything that’s happened with Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center this year.
The Purge
Seven days after Trump’s inauguration, the Kennedy Center’s longtime president, Deborah Rutter, stepped down. A few weeks later, Trump announced his intention to gut the board, writing on : “I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture. We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!”
As Rolling Stone reported earlier this year, Trump was eager to be involved in Kennedy Center planning, with a source saying the president wanted to “review” programming schedules, partially to screen for anti-Trump performers. Trump even reportedly told those close to him he was open to hearing pitches in the Oval Office for new musicals and plays, especially if the original material was anti-woke.
A few days later, Grenell, a former diplomat and Director of National Intelligence, was appointed “interim executive director.” Trump said Grenell “shares my Vision for a GOLDEN AGE of American Arts and Culture” and would work to ensure there was no more “ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA.” (A couple months later, Live Nation — which is still facing a DOJ antitrust investigation — notably added Grenell to its own board.)
Following Grenell’s appointment, Trump announced his new slate of board appointees. While previous Kennedy Center boards have long been equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, Trump’s new hand-picked board was filled with loyalists, including multiple administration figures (Attorney General Pam Bondi, chief of staff Susie Wiles, Second Lady Usha Vance), conservative businessmen, and some entertainment industry figures, like country singer Lee Greenwood and Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
The Backlash
As Trump’s changes took hold, many big names involved with the Kennedy Center cut ties. Star soprano Renée Fleming announced that she would step down as an artistic advisor; Shonda Rhimes resigned as treasurer; and Ben Folds resigned as an adviser to the National Symphony Orchestra, which the Kennedy Center oversees. “Not for me,” Folds wrote on Instagram as he announced his resignation.
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Some artists began cancelling Kennedy Center shows, too, including Issa Rae, Philadelphia rock band Low Cut Connie, and celebrated singer-songwriter Rhiannon Giddens.
“I wanted to stay and stick it out,” Giddens told Rolling Stone. “Then, as things unfolded, what I do is already so loud that I thought, ‘What good is it going to do sticking around? Who am I going to be playing for? Who is actually going to come?’ The money is whatever. I could have just cut the show and lost the money. For me, money is never an issue in these kinds of things. It’s really, ‘What am I trying to say? How am I serving my fans? How am I serving my message?’”
Lin-Manuel Miranda even called off a scheduled revival of Hamilton originally set for spring 2026. “This latest action by Trump means it’s not the Kennedy Center as we knew it,” Miranda said at the time. “The Kennedy Center was not created in this spirit, and we’re not going to be a part of it while it is the Trump Kennedy Center. We’re just not going to be part of it.”
One big show that did go on as planned was the annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which took place in March and recognized Conan O’Brien. The event wound up doubling as a kind of roast of Trump’s takeover, while O’Brien later explained his reasons for going ahead with the show. Noting that the old Kennedy Center “regime” selected him for the honor, O’Brien said he “felt like it was important to show up,” adding, “It was really lovely because the young people working at the Kennedy Center for years were delighted that we came. They don’t know what their future is.”
Many of the Kennedy Center’s regular attendees weren’t too happy with the changes either. In March, a video emerged of Vice President J.D. Vance being booed ahead of a concert. When Trump attended a performance of the musical Les Misérables on June 11, he was also booed, and at least 10 members of the cast boycotted the show in protest.
Cancellations
While some performers called off shows on their own volition, other cancellations were more conspicuous. For instance, the Kennedy Center was set to produce a national tour of Finn, a musical for children about a shark finding its “inner fish”; while the show opened to rave reviews at the Kennedy Center last year, its national tour was nixed, allegedly for financial reasons. (The cast of Finn later took the stage with the band Guster during a Kennedy Center performance in late March.)
The artist Philippa Pham Hughes, a Kennedy Center artist-in-residence who’d been producing a cabaret-style show called Saigon By Night, claimed that a staffer told her to remove or modify a sequence that included some elements of drag performance. Hughes refused, prompting the Kennedy Center to list Saigon By Night as “cancelled by artist,” even though Hughes said she did not cancel it.
“I wanted to showcase Vietnamese American artists on the Kennedy Center stage. So it feels hurtful that they would say I would want to cancel it. They canceled it,” Hughes told NPR.
Yasmin Williams vs. Richard Grenell
Arguably, the biggest early flare-up in Trump’s Kennedy Center takeover occurred when guitarist Yasmin Williams shared a wild email exchange with Grenell over the changes at the institution. Williams, a frequent Kennedy Center performer, wrote to Grenell that she was concerned about issues like reported rollbacks of DEI initiatives and the pointed cancellation of certain shows.
This kicked off a contentious email exchange, which Williams shared screenshots of on Instagram. Grenell responded to her initial email with the blunt non-sequitor, “Let me ask you this question, would you play for Republicans or would you boycott if Republicans came to your show?”
Later in the exchange, Grenell alleged that the Kennedy Center had “zero in the bank and zero in the reserves,” and that the “programs are so woke that they haven’t made money.” He added, “Yes, I cut the DEI bullshit because we can’t afford to pay people for fringe and niche programming that the public won’t support. Yes, I cut the people making over $500k a year because we are in debt. Yes, we are doing programming for the masses in order to pay our bills.”
After declining to attend the Kennedy Center Honors during his first administration, Trump fully took over the annual ceremony this year. In August, he revealed his first slate of honorees, which included prominent backers and longtime Republican donors like Sylvester Stallone, Gloria Gaynor, and George Strait. Metal greats Kiss were also recognized (despite Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley criticizing Trump in the past), as was Tony-winning actor Michael Crawford (who famously starred in one of Trump’s favorite musicals, The Phantom of the Opera).
The actual Kennedy Center Honors ceremony took place in early December, with Trump hosting. Though not as star-studded as previous events, the show did feature some big names, especially those from the country world — Brooks and Dunn, Miranda Lambert — who showed up to honor Strait. There were also appearances from Kurt Russell, Vince Gill, Criss Angel, and Elle King.
Name Change and More Cancellations
Just over a week after the Kennedy Center Honors, on Dec. 18, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump’s handpicked board had “voted unanimously” to rename the institution the Trump-Kennedy Center. Trump had been calling for the change for months, but still claimed he was “surprised” and “honored” by the news. Just days before Christmas, new lettering was put up on the Kennedy Center building, reading, “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
Despite the board’s vote and the quick cosmetic change, it’s unclear if the new name will stick. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) called the change illegal, saying, “The Kennedy Center Board has no authority to actually rename the Kennedy Center in the absence of legislative action.”
And Joyce Beatty, a Democratic representative from Ohio, filed a lawsuit over the matter. Beatty’s lawyer, Norman Eisen — a former White House ethics counsel under Barack Obama — said the name change “violates the Constitution and the rule of law because Congress said this is the name. He doesn’t have a right to change the name.”
The renaming also prompted another round of cancellations, including the Kennedy Center’s annual Christmas Eve Jazz Jam. Musician Chuck Redd, who’s led the event since 2006, opted to cancel it this year, saying, “When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert.” (Grenell has since threatened to take legal action against Redd, demanding $1 million in damages.)
Several more performers and arts organizations also called off shows. These included the New York Dance Company, the jazz band the Cookers, and folk singer Kristy Lee.
Grenell responded the cancellations in a statement, saying, “The artists who are now canceling shows were booked by the previous far left leadership. Their actions prove that the previous team was more concerned about booking far left political activists rather than artists willing to perform for everyone regardless of their political beliefs. Boycotting the Arts to show you support the Arts is a form of derangement syndrome.”
Flop Watch
When Leavitt announced the legally dubious Kennedy Center name change, she said the board’s decision was based on “the unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building. Not only from the standpoint of its reconstruction, but also financially, and its reputation.”
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In reality, however, Kennedy Center ticket sales have fallen sharply this year. In October, The Washington Post reported that sales for the three largest venues at the Kennedy Center are the worst they’ve been in years, with tens of thousands of empty seats. Since early September, a typical production has sold about 57 percent of tickets, compared to 93 percent in fall 2024 and 80 percent in fall 2023.
On top of all that, Trump’s first stint as Kennedy Center Honors host wasn’t a huge hit either. The show was broadcast on CBS on Dec. 23, with Programming Insider reporting that preliminary Nielsen estimates of just 2.65 million viewers — down from 4.1 million in 2024. CBS even hacked up Trump’s opening remarks, cutting his 12-minute speech down to just two minutes.