What could have possibly gone wrong

[jsant...@aol.com]

Richard Grenell, a close ally of President Trump, is leaving his position as head of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after a tumultuous year that included an exodus of artists and audiences from the Washington cultural institution.

Mr. Trump announced Mr. Grenell’s departure from the center, which will soon close for two years of renovations, in a post on social media on Friday afternoon.

“Ric Grenell has done an excellent job in helping to coordinate various elements of the Center during the transition period, and I want to thank him for the outstanding work he has done,” Mr. Trump wrote.

The president said Mr. Grenell would be replaced by Matt Floca, the center’s vice president of facilities operations. Mr. Trump said Mr. Floca “has helped us achieve tremendous progress in bringing the Center to the highest level of Excellence!”

Mr. Grenell, the former ambassador to Germany, is stepping aside as the center prepares to close on July 4. Mr. Trump announced the shutdown after months of headlines about boycotts by patrons and high-profile artists, including the composer Philip Glass, the Grammy-winning banjo player Béla Fleck, the San Francisco Ballet and the traveling production of “Hamilton.”

Mr. Grenell declined to comment.

He leaves behind an institution that is drastically changed from a year ago, when Mr. Trump installed himself as chairman of the center and filled the board with loyalists as he moved to put his imprint on the center, including what appeared on its stages. The president went on to insert his name into that of the center, which opened in 1971 in tribute to John F. Kennedy.

The upheaval at a traditionally nonpartisan institution, where Republicans and Democrats have over the decades sat side by side for opera, theater and orchestra performances as well as black-tie gala events like the Kennedy Center Honors, set off a storm in the cultural world.

The Washington National Opera, a cultural pillar of the center, announced that it was moving out because of a decline in attendance and an edict from Mr. Grenell that all productions had to show how they would break even before the curtain raised. (Operas rarely make a profit from ticket sales alone, relying instead on contributions.)

The National Symphony Orchestra continued to perform at the Kennedy Center, often to many empty seats, but last week its executive director, Jean Davidson, announced she was leaving. She previously had been a public advocate of the orchestra’s staying put but said then that she did not “see how I could be effective as a leader in the current climate.”

The news of Mr. Grenell’s departure was earlier reported by Axios.

Mr. Floca is stepping in as the center moves from offering arts programs to construction and rebuilding, an extension of the kind of work he was doing in his previous positions.

On Friday, Mr. Trump posted two renderings of the future Kennedy Center online and said that it would be “the finest facility of its kind anywhere in the World!” It is not clear, however, whether performers and audiences will return as enthusiastically, much less what it will look like after the project is completed.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03/13/us/trump-news#kennedy-center-richard-grenell

[Tim]

I am concerned that he will wreck the Kennedy Center.  He destroyed the East Wing.  So much wreckage has followed in his wake so far, and all we can expect is more of the same. 

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[Hsvr Blu]

I hope the American people will find the courage to tear down name and symbols down after he is gone.

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[Tim]

I believe there is a broad consensus among us to try every legal means first, in part because in doing so we preserve the rule of law.  In some cases this brings us into alignment with local law enforcement - and cops do the violence so we don't have to. In many city police departments the #1 goal is to go home at night and retire to a fat paycheck after 20 years, and still healthy enough to enjoy it, but to do that, they must remain alive. Therefore, neutralizing violent people becomes an us and them situation.  The motivations of the violent person don't matter. 

My dream is to see thousands of the bullies and bastards locked up in the human warehouses they equipped and stocked with innocent brown people.    

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[John Santaella]

I hope Congress has the balls to make him pay for the reconstruction of the Kennedy Center

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