The Trump-captured Kennedy Center is demanding $1 million in damages from a jazz musician who committed the unforgivable sin of… canceling his own concert.
Chuck Redd, who has hosted the venue’s annual Christmas Eve Jazz Jam since 2006, pulled the plug after watching Trump’s name get literally etched into the building’s façade last week.
Now Richard Grenell—Trump’s handpicked Kennedy Center president, described by a former colleague as “one of the most nasty, dishonest people I’ve ever encountered”—is threatening legal action for this “political stunt.”
WHAT’S GOING ON: Last week, Trump’s board unanimously voted to rename the historic cultural institution “The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
Within hours, crews were carving Trump’s name into the building. Redd, a 67-year-old drummer and vibraphone player who has performed at the Kennedy Center since the beginning of his career, decided he couldn’t stomach it.
“I was saddened to see this name change,” he told CNN.
THE DETAILS: In his furious letter, Grenell blasted Redd for “classic intolerance” and mocked his ticket sales while simultaneously claiming the cancellation was “very costly” to the nonprofit.
The letter, sent on letterhead featuring the new “Trump Kennedy Center” logo (OF COURSE), accuses Redd of failing to be a “true artist” who “performs for everyone regardless of the political affiliation of audience members.”
This from the administration that has Trump personally campaigning to get late-night comedians fired and threatening to terminate broadcast licenses of networks that air negative coverage of him.
BUT BUT BUT: Here’s the thing—Redd isn’t the only one fleeing. Since Trump’s hostile takeover, artists including Issa Rae, Renée Fleming, Shonda Rhimes, and Ben Folds have resigned from leadership roles or canceled events. The producer of “Hamilton” killed the show’s planned run entirely.
And the financial damage? This year’s “Nutcracker”—historically one of the center’s biggest draws—sold approximately 10,000 seats across seven performances, down from around 15,000 in previous years.
The Kennedy Center had to comp roughly five times more tickets than usual and fell about half a million dollars short of its $1.5 million revenue goal. But sure, blame the jazz guy.
WHY IT MATTERS: This is what happens when an authoritarian captures cultural institutions: anyone who objects becomes a target.
A Democratic congresswoman has already filed a lawsuit arguing the renaming requires an act of Congress, since the center was designated as a Kennedy memorial by law in 1964.
Meanwhile, Trump is suing The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the BBC for perceived slights. The message is clear: submit or be destroyed. Redd chose to walk away from a gig he’d held for nearly two decades rather than perform under Trump’s name. Now he’s facing a million-dollar threat for it.
That’s not protecting the arts—that’s punishing dissent.