Trump-Kennedy Center president says he plans to seek $1 million in damages over 'political stunt'

Leadership of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. responded to the cancellation of a decades-old holiday tradition at the venue that was abruptly canceled this week after its longtime host withdrew in protest of the renaming of the nation’s premier performing arts venue.

In response to the cancellation, Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell, an appointee of President Trump, sharply criticized Redd’s action, characterizing it as a “political stunt” that harmed the nonprofit institution and announcing plans to seek $1 million in damages. Grenell described the cancellation as “classic intolerance,” claiming it inflicted financial losses on the venue.

Jazz musician Chuck Redd, who had led the Christmas Eve Jazz Jam at the center since 2006, called off this year’s performance after the building’s board of trustees approved adding President Donald J. Trump’s name alongside that of John F. Kennedy on the facility’s exterior signage, naming the venue the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Redd said he made the decision after seeing the name change on the center’s website and then on the building itself. 

"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," Grenell, wrote in a letter to Redd.

The concert, a holiday fixture for more than two decades, did not take place as planned on December 24. There are currently no plans to reschedule the event, Redd said, according to The Associated Press.

The renaming has sparked intense backlash from artists, lawmakers and members of the Kennedy family, as well as legal questions about whether the board has the authority to alter the name of a national memorial originally established by Congress. Federal statute designates the building as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and critics argue that adding another name without legislative approval could be a violation of that law.