Kennedy Center slams Chuck Redd for canceling performance after Trump’s name was added to building
WASHINGTON, DC: The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts sharply rebuked jazz musician Chuck Redd after he abruptly cancelled the long-standing Christmas Eve performance in protest against the decision to add President Donald Trump’s name to the institution. The center called out the withdrawal for causing significant financial harm.
Kennedy Center slams Chuck Redd's decision as 'classic intolerance'
Richard Grenell, the president of the Kennedy Center, on Friday, December 26, in a letter, criticized the musician’s sudden decision to cancel the performance at the venue after the White House announced that Trump’s name would be added to the facility.
“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,” Grenell wrote.
The letter was later shared with The Associated Press.
Grenell said he would seek $1 million in damages “for this political stunt.”
Kennedy Center jazz tradition ends after name change
For 20 years there has been a Christmas Eve Jazz Concert at the Kennedy Center. This year it was cancelled. After seeing Trump's named added to the building, the organizer, drummer Chuck Redd, cancelled the event. pic.twitter.com/a6cApXAj33
— Save America from the GOP (@rojawi) December 25, 2025
Since 2006, Redd had presided over holiday “Jazz Jams” at the Kennedy Center, succeeding bassist William “Keter” Betts.
On Wednesday, in an email to The Associated Press, Redd said he pulled out of the concert in the wake of the renaming.
“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 said.
This decision put an end to a holiday tradition that lasted for more than 20 years.
The White House stated that the president’s selected board approved the naming change. The law explicitly prohibits the board of trustees from making the center into a memorial to anyone else and from putting another person’s name on the building’s exterior.
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After President John F Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Congress passed a law the next year that named the center a living memorial to him.
The 35th president's niece, Kerry Kennedy, has promised to remove Trump's name from the building once he leaves office. Former House historian Ray Smock is among those who say any changes would need Congress's approval.
Trump, a Republican, has become very involved with the center named for a famous Democrat after largely ignoring it during his first term.
He has removed its leadership, restructured the board while arranging to lead it himself, and personally hosted this year's Kennedy Center honors, breaking a long-standing tradition of presidents mostly being spectators.
The name change is part of broader changes since Trump’s return to office. This shift has caused several artists to pull out of performances at the Kennedy Center this year.
