Trump Kennedy Center already resorting to suing artists to make them show up

The abrupt cancellation of an annual Christmas jazz concert has provoked a typically tantrum-ish administration response.

By William Hughes  |  December 27, 2025 | 4:05pm
The Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts, Photo: Heather Diehl/Getty Images
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Trump Kennedy Center already resorting to suing artists to make them show up

When it comes to venue management, nothing says “A bold new rebranding that the people are excited to support!” like having to threaten artists with a million-dollar lawsuit so they’ll actually show up to play their gigs. That’s the tack being taken this week by the John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts, which recently had Donald Trump’s name bolted to the front of it, a move that arrived with all of the current administration’s typical commitment to quiet, dignified elegance. Besides provoking the usual reminders that Trump’s latest action is probably illegal—the Center was named as a memorial by a statute of Congress in 1964 after Kennedy’s assassination, and a swiftly deployed lawsuit argues that its name can thus only be changed by a similar legislative action—the change has also led to one of the Center’s regular holiday institutions being canceled. Specifically, an annual Christmas Jazz Jam show, which got abruptly canceled earlier this week after musician Chuck Redd, who runs the event, expressed his dissatisfaction with the name change.

Telling The Associated Press that “When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert,” Redd has now become the subject of a typical Trump administration one-two combo: Name calling, followed by a threat of legal action, suggesting the paradoxical gripe that the person rejecting them sucks, and also how dare they try to leave? Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell—who was named to the post earlier this year as part of Trump’s bid to add the Center to his little trove of presidential baubles—issued a statement today addressing Redd, in which he said that, “Your decision to withdraw at the last moment—explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure—is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution. Your dismal ticket sales and lack of donor support, combined with your last-minute cancellation has cost us considerably. This is your official notice that we will seek $1 million in damages from you for this political stunt.”

And, again: If Redd’s ticket sales were so dismal for the annual holiday jazz event, we’re not sure how that adds up to a million bucks in damages. But, then, Trump’s approach to lawsuit cash amounts seems to usually involve tossing down the biggest number he can think of in the moment, and then spouting off a few reminders of how the people in question are actually being intolerant toward him, so this all feels pulled straight from the playbook.

Per NPR, the Kennedy Center claims it’ll actually file the threatened lawsuit once the holidays are over.

 
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