Last week, Chuck Redd, a veteran jazz drummer, was supposed to host the Christmas Eve concert at the Trump-Kennedy Center. Days before the event, he suddenly backed out. His excuse? He couldn’t handle performing at a venue newly renamed to honor President Donald Trump. And just like that, the entire show was dead.
The Trump-Kennedy Center’s president, Richard Grenell, wasn’t having it and hit Redd with a $1 million lawsuit, calling the last-minute pullout a “political stunt.” It’s the first major legal test of what happens when publicly funded artists decide to play politics instead of music. And as more musicians abruptly cancel, this could be just the beginning.
Now, even more musicians have since joined the resistance chorus, apparently unswayed by the potential consequences.
The Cookers, a well-known jazz ensemble, also scrapped their D.C. performance. They didn’t spell out their reasons, but drummer Billy Hart admitted that the “name alteration clearly” played a role.
Then there’s Kristy Lee, a folk singer from Alabama. She canceled her January show at the Trump-Kennedy Center. In a lengthy Instagram post, she announced she’d rather lose a paycheck than her “integrity.”
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“When American history is treated as something that can be banned, erased, renamed, or rebranded for someone else’s ego,” she wrote, “I cannot stand on that stage and feel right at night.”
Instead, she plans to livestream from her living room.
Wow, how thrilling. I wonder if her integrity is worth a million dollars.
Lee claims her decision was about protecting the “institutional integrity” of publicly funded venues, which she believes shouldn’t fall under political influence. It’s a noble-sounding sentiment until you realize that political influence over the Kennedy Center didn’t seem to bother anyone before Trump’s name was added next to Kennedy’s.
Funny how “integrity” always becomes urgent when the politics don’t align with the left’s.
But, integrity may not be what’s pushing these artists to cancel. According to Grenell, artists are being encouraged to boycott the Trump-Kennedy Center.
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
Maybe Grenell should sue CNN and the Washington Post.
Vice President of Communications Roma Daravi previously made it clear that canceling shows for political reasons isn’t brave—it’s selfish. “Any artist cancelling their show at the Trump Kennedy Center over political differences isn’t courageous or principled—they are selfish, intolerant, and have failed to meet the basic duty of a public artist: to perform for all people,” she said last week. She also emphasized that art “is a shared cultural experience meant to unite, not exclude.”
The Trump-Kennedy Center’s leadership says they’re building “a true bipartisan institution” open to everyone. That shouldn’t be controversial, but in today’s hyper-partisan entertainment industry, where virtue signaling is a full-time job, everyone’s auditioning for moral superiority.
I hope every single one of them who backed out gets sued.
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