New signage, The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts, is unveiled on the Kennedy Center, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Workers add President Donald Trump's name to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, after a Trump-appointed board voted to rename the institution, in Washington, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
FILE - A memorial wreath stands next to the bronze memorial bust by Robert Berks of President John F. Kennedy in the grand foyer at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Nov. 22, 2013, on the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's death. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
New signage, The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts, is unveiled on the Kennedy Center, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
JM
Workers add President Donald Trump's name to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, after a Trump-appointed board voted to rename the institution, in Washington, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
J. Scott Applewhite
FILE - A memorial wreath stands next to the bronze memorial bust by Robert Berks of President John F. Kennedy in the grand foyer at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Nov. 22, 2013, on the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's death. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The president of the Kennedy Center on Friday fiercely criticized a musician's sudden decision to cancel a Christmas Eve performance at the venue after the White House announced that President Donald 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,†the venue's president, Richard Grenell, wrote in a to musician Chuck Redd that was shared with The Associated Press.
In the letter, Grenell said he would seek $1 million in damages “for this political stunt.â€
Redd did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A drummer and vibraphone player, Redd has presided over holiday “Jazz Jams†at the Kennedy Center since 2006, succeeding bassist William “Keter†Betts. In an email Wednesday 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.
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and Congress passed a law the following year naming the center as a living memorial to him.
According to the White House, Trump's handpicked board approved the , which scholars have said violates the law. Kennedy niece Kerry Kennedy has vowed to remove Trump’s name from the building once he leaves office, and former House historian Ray Smock is among those who say any changes would have to be approved by Congress.
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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Associated Press writer Hillel Italie in New York contributed to this report.
