Rick Grenell sends letter to Chuck Redd after he canceled show over venue’s name change<\/b>
\nThe president of the Kennedy Center intends to seek $1 million in damages from a jazz musician who abruptly cancelled a scheduled performance over the iconic D.C. performing arts center\u2019s rebranding to include President Donald Trump\u2019s name.
Ambassador Richard Grenell sent a letter to Chuck Redd claiming his \u201clast-minute\u201d cancellation of his Dec. 24 Jazz Jam performance was a \u201cpolitical stunt\u201d in protest of the Center\u2019s being renamed the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. Grenell claimed the musician\u2019s cancellation cost the center \u201cconsiderably\u201d due to the artist\u2019s \u201cdismal ticket sales and lack of donor support.\u201d
\u201cYour decision to withdraw at the last moment\u2014explicitly in response to the Center\u2019s recent renaming, which honors President Trump\u2019s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure\u2014is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution,\u201d Grenell wrote in his letter. \u201cThis is your official notice that we will seek $1 million in damages from you for this political stunt.\u201d
Redd has led the Christmas Eve Jazz Jam at the Center since 2006. Redd told the Associated Press in an email he explicitly pulled out of the long-time performance due to the renaming.
In the letter, Grenell added that Redd\u2019s performances on Christmas Eve were not selling well, and that the Center would continue to put on jazz performances to \u201csold out crowds regardless of their political leanings.\u201d
\u201cRegrettably, your action surrenders to the sad bullying tactics employed by certain elements on the left, who have sought to intimidate artists into boycotting performances at our national cultural center,\u201d Grenell continued.
Trump and Grenell launched a 2025 effort to revamp the Kennedy Center, already bringing in a comparatively large donor haul compared to the institution under previous administrations. The president himself joined the Center\u2019s board as its chairman in February to oversee the project.
Neither the Kennedy Center nor Redd immediately responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation\u2019s requests for comment.
\u2018Evil liberal musician\u2019: Trump Derangement Syndrome cancels Christmas Eve performance<\/p>\n