US Politics
‘We want performers who aren’t political’: Trump’s Kennedy Center boss takes aim at another musician over canceled concert
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The Kennedy Center’s president has taken aim at yet another musician who canceled a performance at the Washington, D.C., performing arts center.
Béla Fleck, a famed banjo player and multiple Grammy Award winner, announced Tuesday he’s canceling his upcoming performance with the National Symphony Orchestra, writing that appearances at the venue have become “charged and political.”
“I have withdrawn from my upcoming performance with the NSO at The Kennedy Center,” Fleck wrote on X. “Performing there has become charged and political, at an institution where the focus should be on the music.
“I look forward to playing with the NSO another time in the future when we can together share and celebrate art,” he continued.
Fleck is now among several artists who have canceled appearances at the performing arts center in recent weeks, after the White House announced plans to rename the venue the “Trump-Kennedy Center.”
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Richard Grenell, who became interim president of the Kennedy Center under Trump in February, took aim at the musician on X.
“You just made it political and caved to the woke mob who wants you to perform for only Lefties. This mob pressuring you will never be happy until you only play for Democrats,” Grenell said in a Tuesday evening post.
“The Trump Kennedy Center believes all people are welcome – Democrats and Republicans and people uninterested in politics. We want performers who aren’t political – who simply love entertaining everyone regardless of who they voted for,” he added.
Jean Davidson, the National Symphony Orchestra’s executive director, also responded to Fleck’s announcement in a statement shared with The New York Times. “Our audience will miss him, and we hope to welcome him back in the future,” she said.
The Independent has contacted Fleck and the Kennedy Center for comment.
Several artists canceled performances at the venue in late December, in protest of Trump’s takeover of the institution and his recent attempts to rename the performing arts center.
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Trump dismissed several Kennedy Center board members in February and replaced them with his supporters. He was then named chair of the Kennedy Center.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt then announced plans to change the venue’s name on December 18, claiming its board “voted unanimously” to include the president’s name. Workers were later spotted adding his name to the building’s sign.
“Congratulations to President Donald J. Trump, and likewise, congratulations to President Kennedy, because this will be a truly great team long into the future! The building will no doubt attain new levels of success and grandeur,” Leavitt wrote on X.
Trump’s attempt to rename the center has been met with pushback, with some critics arguing that only Congress has the authority to change its name.
In response to the wave of performer cancellations late last month, Grenell wrote on X: “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 the December 29 post.