The addition of President Trump's name to the Kennedy Center has truly shaken up the world of performing arts in the nation's capital.
Portrayed by RedState's Katie Jerkovich reported Just a few weeks ago, the White House announced that the Kennedy Center would officially be renamed the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts—or the Trump-Kennedy Center for short—after its board of trustees voted to rename it. The move comes after Trump and Ric Grenell, Trump's choice as interim president of the storied performing arts center, spent much of 2025 working to modernize and update the facility and its offerings.
And no time was wasted in changing the name: in just a few days, new signs appeared on the building.
Today, we are proud to unveil our updated visual designation, honoring the leadership of President Donald Trump and the enduring legacy of John F. Kennedy. 🇺🇸
Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts pic.twitter.com/ALEE59pkZ9
— Trump Kennedy Center (@kencen) December 19, 2025
Then the cancellations began – not from the audience, but from the performers.
Our Nick Arama did a masterful job with the lighting. story musician Chuck Redd, who had hosted the Jazz Jams Christmas concert at the center since 2006, suddenly pulled out of the show after learning of the name change. “When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then a few hours later on the building, I decided to cancel our concert,” Redd told The Associated Press.
Ric Grenell told Redd, “Not so fast, buddy.” threatened To Sue the performer received (wink, wink) $1 million for reneging on his obligations.
“Your decision to pull out at the last minute—clearly in response to the recent renaming of the Center, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure—is classic intolerance and is very costly to an arts nonprofit,” Grenell wrote.
“Unfortunately, your actions lend themselves to the unfortunate intimidation tactics used by some elements of the left who are trying to intimidate artists into boycotting performances at our national cultural center,” he added.
Unfortunately, it appears that some other artists are also putting their politics ahead of their performances and are canceling shows at the Trump-Kennedy Center. New York jazz group The Cookers have canceled their planned New Year's performance. speaking“Jazz was born out of struggle and the tireless pursuit of freedom: freedom of thought, expression and the full human voice.”
READ MORE: Christmas concert at Trump Kennedy Center canceled after woke hecklers throw tantrums
Somehow adding Trump's name to a building silenced “human voices”? It should be noted that Trump did not suppress anything; It was The Cookers who abandoned their fans. And they're not the only ones: country singer Christy Lee is leaving her January concert to do her own wordsto preserve its integrity, and the troupe of Doug Varone and the dancers cancel their April date because they can no longer “step into this once great establishment.” Again, it's their choice.
There are all sorts of reasons why artists might need to cancel concerts—like illness and family emergencies, or, as we've seen, political temper tantrums and Trump's derangement syndrome—but Ric Grenell has made a stunning claim about why some of these recent cancellations may have happened: interference from CNN and The Washington Post.
Some booked artists have just informed me that they are receiving emails from @CNN And @washingtonpost urging them to boycott the Trump Kennedy Center.
The legacy media are left wing activists and they are open about it.
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) December 30, 2025
There's no reason not to believe that this is what Grenell is hearing, and if it's true, it's shocking, scary, and completely unsurprising. Here, the left's long-held belief that it owns institutions like the Trump-Kennedy Center is exposed; the dawning realization that they don't mean that no one will be able to enjoy it now. Of course, the fans suffer, but apparently this doesn’t matter to these performers, because… Trump.
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