Ric Grenell's Kennedy Center overhaul includes a 'big celebration of birth of Christ at Christmas'

Ric Grenell, the interim executive director of the Kennedy Center, told the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday that the Kennedy Center will have "a big, huge celebration of the birth of Christ at Christmas" this December.

Politico’s Dasha Burns asked Grenell during an interview on stage at CPAC about his new role at the Kennedy Center, with him saying "well, we want to make art great again."

"I think the frustration that President Trump had is that the Kennedy Center has no cash on hand, no reserves, and they have been paying for the salaries with the debt reserves while taking around $40 million of public money," Grenell added. "And so, you can't have that. If you're gonna take public money, then you get to have public input. And so what we're gonna say at the Kennedy Center, is first of all, we gotta clean up the financial situation. We have to do the big productions that the masses and the public wanna see. We want to have really good programming.

"So the first thing that we're doing, I think the big change is for everybody to know you gotta be at the Kennedy Center in December because we are doing a big, huge celebration of the birth of Christ at Christmas," he continued. "How crazy is it to think that we're gonna celebrate Christ at Christmas with a big, traditional production to celebrate what we are all celebrating in the world during Christmastime, which is the birth of Christ."

Later in the interview, Grenell also said he was officially inviting Dolly Parton to perform at the Kennedy Center because she would be his ideal performer.

After discussing sending conditional funds to help California with the devastation from the wildfires, Grenell said he may run for California governor if former Vice President Kamala Harris jumps in the race.

"It’s not in my plan unless Kamala Harris runs for governor," he said, when questioned on his plans.

"We already know who she is, we’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars to define who Kamala Harris is. If she thinks that she's gonna run for governor of California, a Republican is gonna win, and I may not be able to resist trying to run against her," he said.

The California gubernatorial election is scheduled for November 2026, and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is term-limited. Harris has not officially joined the gubernatorial race, but a recent poll suggested that she would be the Democratic front-runner.