{"id":9407,"date":"2026-03-14T01:22:49","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T01:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/donald-trump-ally-richard-grenell-exit-kennedy-center\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T01:22:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T01:22:49","slug":"donald-trump-ally-richard-grenell-exit-kennedy-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/donald-trump-ally-richard-grenell-exit-kennedy-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Ally Richard Grenell to Step Down as Kennedy Center\u00a0President"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tRichard Grenell<\/strong>, an ally of President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0who oversaw far reaching changes at the Kennedy Center that\u00a0prompted many artists to abandon\u00a0the iconic performing arts venue, will step down as the institution\u2019s president.<\/p>\n

\n\tTrump announced the change in a social media post on Friday after it was first reported by Axios<\/em>. The president said Matt Floca<\/strong>, who manages the Kennedy Center\u2019s facilities operations, will succeed Grenell. The moves are expected to be finalized at a board meeting scheduled for Monday at the White House, according to a person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss plans that are not yet public.<\/p>\n

\n\tGrenell\u2019s departure comes as the Kennedy Center prepares to close this summer for a\u00a0two-year renovation.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRic Grenell has done an excellent job in helping to coordinate various elements of the Center during the transition period, and I want to thank him for the outstanding work he has done,\u201d Trump said online. \u201cTHE TRUMP KENNEDY CENTER will be, at its completion, the finest facility of its kind anywhere in the World!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGrenell was a central player in Trump\u2019s push to dramatically overhaul the Kennedy Center following the president\u2019s return to office. After mostly ignoring the center during his first term, Trump made it a focal point in his war against \u201cwoke\u201d culture. He\u00a0ousted\u00a0the Kennedy Center\u2019s previous leadership and replaced it with a hand-picked board of trustees who voted to rename the facility the Trump Kennedy Center, a change scholars and lawmakers say must be initiated by Congress.<\/p>\n

\n\tMore recently, Trump\u2019s name was\u00a0physically added\u00a0to the building\u2019s iconic facade.<\/p>\n

The fallout from the arts community was swift and intense, with prominent musicals, such as \u201cHamilton,\u201d\u00a0canceling\u00a0performances. Actor\u00a0Issa Rae\u00a0and author Louise Penny also withdrew from appearances while consultants such as musician Ben Folds and singer Ren\u00e9e Fleming resigned. Last week, the executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra, Jean Davidson, left to head the Los Angeles-based Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.<\/p>\n

The Kennedy Center was long known as an apolitical space<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tPerhaps best known for its annual honors program, the Kennedy Center was long one of the few places in Washington where political differences were put aside. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg \u2014 ideological opposites \u2014 famously attended the opera together.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the venue became something of an extension of Trump\u2019s White House during his second term. The president was instrumental in convincing FIFA President Gianni Infantino to hold the\u00a0World Cup draw\u00a0there in December. Just a few days later,\u00a0Trump himself hosted\u00a0the Kennedy Center honors, the first for a president.<\/p>\n

\n\tSince then, Trump has\u00a0addressed House Republicans\u00a0at the Kennedy Center. The\u00a0documentary\u00a0of first lady Melania Trump also premiered there.<\/p>\n

\n\tGrenell is a longtime Republican foreign policy adviser. During Trump\u2019s first term, he was the U.S. ambassador to Germany and special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations. He also served as acting director of national intelligence and was considered a contender for secretary of state in Trump\u2019s second term, a post that ultimately went to Marco Rubio.<\/p>\n

In his position at the Kennedy Center, Grenell emphasized what he called \u201ccommon sense\u201d programming, aiming to steer the venue toward events that appealed to a broad audience and didn\u2019t lose money. But his moves prompted criticism from many Democrats on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

\n\tSen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee,\u00a0released documents\u00a0in November showing the Kennedy Center entered into an agreement giving FIFA \u201cexclusive\u201d use of the facility from Nov. 24 through Dec. 12 at no cost, arguing that the venue was at risk of losing millions in potential revenue because of the arrangement.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Kennedy Center\u00a0told the AP<\/em>\u00a0at the time that it was being paid $7.4 million to host the draw, including a $2.4 million donation from FIFA, as well as sponsorship opportunities and expenses. In a response to Whitehouse, Grenell said he raised $117 million last year.<\/p>\n

But the wave of cancellations proved difficult to sustain. Without mentioning the abandoned performances, Trump said in February he would close the Kennedy Center for two years after this summer\u2019s July Fourth celebrations to repair what he has described as a dilapidated building.
Ahead of the closure,\u00a0Grenell warned staff\u00a0about impending cuts that will leave \u201cskeletal teams.\u201d
According to Floca\u2019s LinkedIn page, he joined the Kennedy Center in January 2024, during the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

\n\tA center press release from the time describes him as \u201can experienced facilities management professional with a construction management background and an appreciation for whole building design principles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPrevious experience for Floca listed on LinkedIn includes a handful of positions with the District of Columbia government, among them associate director of sustainability and energy and director of facilities management. He graduated from Louisiana State University in 2009 with a Bachelor of Science degree in construction management.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story was first published by The Associated Press<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n


\n \"Billboard
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Richard Grenell, an ally of President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0who oversaw far reaching changes at the Kennedy Center that\u00a0prompted many artists to abandon\u00a0the iconic performing arts venue, will step down as the institution\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[387,502,282,93,94,280],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-business-news","category-donald-trump","category-kennedy-center","category-music-news","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}