REPORT: Artists cancel New Year’s Eve shows following ‘Trump–Kennedy Center’ rebrand [Grenell responds]

December 30, 2025

From Fox News: A host of performers have canceled upcoming shows at the Kennedy Center — after the White House announced President Donald Trump’s name would be added to the performing arts institution in Washington.

The Cookers, a jazz septet, was slated to perform twice on New Year’s Eve at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater. However, the group announced Monday that it would no longer be performing those shows.

“Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice,” the Cookers said in a Monday statement. “Some of us have been making this music for many decades, and that history still shapes us. We are not turning away from our audience, and do want to make sure that when we do return to the bandstand, the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it.”

Additionally, the band’s drummer, Billy Hart, told The New York Times that the addition of Trump’s name to the performing arts center “evidently” played a factor in the group’s decision to withdraw.

The New York Times also reported that Doug Varone and Dancers, a New York dance company, announced Monday that it was canceling two performances scheduled for April. Varone touted that they would lose $40,000 by pulling out and declared, “It is financially devastating but morally exhilarating.”

A veteran jazz ensemble and a New York dance company have canceled events at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, intensifying the fallout at one of the nation’s pre-eminent arts centers after it was renamed to include President Trump. https://t.co/C4noJpVdpe

— New York Times Music (@nytimesmusic) December 30, 2025

Richard Grenell, interim president of The Kennedy Center, reacted to the cancellations on social media.

“The @nytimes is celebrating people boycotting the Arts,” Grenell noted.

The @nytimes is celebrating people boycotting the Arts.

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) December 29, 2025

“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. The arts are for everyone and the left is mad about it,” Grenell wrote in another post.

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…

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) December 30, 2025

Tuesday afternoon, Grenell added, “I have just been informed by some booked artists that they are receiving emails from @CNN and The @washingtonpost encouraging them to boycott the Trump Kennedy Center. The legacy media are left wing activists – and they are open about it.”

I have just been informed by some booked artists that they are receiving emails from @CNN and The @washingtonpost encouraging 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