Trump’s Kennedy Center Overhaul: Grenell Out, Building to Close

Thirteen months was all it took to break the Kennedy Center. The news of Ric Grenell’s exit—or, his “plans to transition out of his role,” as Axios put it when breaking the story yesterday—suggests the end of a period in which the Kennedy Center has continually generated controversy, and the beginning of one in which fewer people even notice it.

One clue to this new direction can be found in Grenell’s apparent replacement. President Trump announced on Truth Social that Matt Floca, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of facilities, would lead the place. Floca began working at the organization during the Biden administration but became Trump’s go-to renovation expert—someone Trump started to call regularly for updates about all the changes he had ordered, such as redoing the seats in the opera house.

The personnel swap comes nearly three months after Trump’s handpicked board of trustees voted to add his name to the Kennedy Center, and a little more than a month since the president’s announcement that he plans to shut down the building for two years for renovations. These were political shocks, and to some people, they were also moral ones. For a year, the face of these controversies was Grenell, who defended them loudly, especially on X.

One person with close knowledge of high-profile programming at the center, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told me that Grenell’s departure “takes the politics out—not having a figurehead for the Kennedy Center who’s mouthing off all the time on socials.” It made sense to this person that a building expert would now be in charge. With the coming closure, “there just isn’t going to be much messaging coming out of the Kennedy Center in any way.” In other words, Trump still fully intends to remake the center in his image; he’d just like to limit the backlash. Whatever his talents, Grenell is not a no-backlash guy.

When the Kennedy Center opened in 1971, the idea was for it to be a “living monument” to a slain president and a national arts center. A public-private partnership funded by taxpayers, donors, and ticket-buyers made the center possible. Last February, Trump exploited his office’s traditional role as appointer of the board of trustees to purge members installed by previous administrations. He framed this in political terms—citing drag shows—and selected Grenell, a loyalist who had previously served as Trump’s ambassador to Germany and later as the acting director of national intelligence.

As America’s Trumpiest arts administrator, Grenell seemed to relish the position and—like much of the rest of Trump’s inner circle—frequently performed his devotion to the president on X, particularly as artists and Kennedy Center patrons rejected Trump’s takeover. He called the Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda “intolerant” for yanking a run of the musical from the Kennedy Center. He got into an extended email exchange in which he accused a guitarist—Yasmin Williams—of being prejudiced against Republicans. He accused the former Kennedy Center leadership of “fraud” and fiscally ruinous management, something those leaders denied. On numerous occasions, his communications team ignored questions from reporters, and then Grenell slammed them by name on X.

Under Grenell, the institution became the “Trump Kennedy Center” months before the board made that name official. There were more Christian-themed programs, venue rentals to right-wing groups such as the Conservative Political Action Conference, and events aligned with the Trump administration’s priorities, including a Saudi investment forum. At the World Cup draw in December, Trump received the first-ever “FIFA Peace Prize” during an event that forced the postponement or relocation of orchestra concerts. In January, the documentary Melania had its world premiere at the Kennedy Center.

Although Grenell boasted of wiping out overpaid executives, rescuing the center’s finances, and bringing in massive fundraising hauls, a Washington Post analysis of publicly available ticket data found that sales had plummeted. Prominent soloists and troupes such as the Martha Graham Dance Company and the San Francisco Ballet dropped Kennedy Center dates in protest. Philip Glass pulled the world premiere of a symphony from the orchestra’s calendar. The Washington National Opera left. Whereas some events sell out, swaths of empty seats remain a regular sight.

And now it is closing. Trump has said the full shutdown is necessary for a proper renovation, but many staffers see it as a way to cover for plummeting revenue and incessantly negative news coverage. Representative Joyce Beatty is suing to stop the closure. Grenell, who lives in California, was rarely present at the center, and a current staffer told me this week that Grenell’s departure was widely expected by employees. “There was a lack of leadership; he literally was just never around,” this person told me. “And he didn’t empower his deputies to make decisions on his behalf.” This staffer’s job, along with many others’, will end in July when the center closes its doors.

Numerous questions about the Kennedy Center remain unanswered. The National Symphony Orchestra will seek new venues for the next two years. It is unclear what will happen to already scheduled Broadway tours or where the Kennedy Center Honors will take place. Responding to an email on Friday, the Kennedy Center’s communications chief simply wrote, “I’d point you to the Chairman’s statement”—meaning Trump’s Truth Social post—“and the Axios piece.”

I’ve long wondered why Grenell bothered with so much online combat on the Kennedy Center’s behalf. As a member of a historically punchy administration, perhaps he saw fighting the critics as the core aspect of the job. But Trump has his own limits. CNN reported yesterday that the president had finally turn into frustrated with all the negative headlines about the revamp. According to Axios, Grenell will “still be active in the organization as an unpaid consultant.” Like the ushers, he’ll be a volunteer.