Trump closing Kennedy Center was 'complete surprise' even to his handpicked board: report

The Daily Beast's "The Swamp" newsletter reports Trump’s announcement of the closure of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was a surprise to everyone — including the people in charge of it.

“Well-placed sources have told The Swamp that Trump’s decision blindsided nearly everyone involved — including, awkwardly, [Interim Executive Director/President] Ric Grenell and his inner circle,” the Beast reported.

“It cannot be overstated the degree to which this came as a complete surprise to everybody in the organization, including the office of the president,” one insider said of Grenell, who replaced long-time president Deborah Rutter after Trump fired her last year.

“Painfully low ticket sales” were already forcing the cancellation of singer-songwriter Ben Rector’s upcoming Kennedy Center as well as the National Symphony Orchestra’s “American Promise” show. But Trump’s unexpected closure announcement, coupled with numerous cancellations either due to outrage of the center’s clumsy new name or poor did nothing for “Grenell’s optics.”

“On Monday night, the Kennedy Center’s social account posted a photo of [Grenell] striding through Capitol Hill (in what appeared to be red-soled Louboutin shoes) to ‘discuss responsible use of taxpayer dollars to renovate the Kennedy Center.’” The image landed less as reassurance than as performance art — one man power-walking through Congress while the institution he oversees hemorrhages artists, audiences, cultural significance, and credibility,” the Beast reported.

Meanwhile anonymous sources tell the Beast that the shutdown was seen by those inside the institution as an effort to “control the narrative.”

“But that narrative is slipping fast,” reported the Beast. “Artists are pulling out of contracts. New shows are refusing to book. Ticket buyers are staying home. And staff morale, already fragile, is sinking further as uncertainty spreads.

Other sources say the closure was also a move to bust the professional labor unions at the Kennedy Center, which are heading into negotiations this spring and summer.

“New management has made little effort to hide its disdain for unions, labor costs, and regulatory constraints. The goal, insiders say, is a shift toward a more ‘commercial model’ — a phrase that tends to translate as fewer protections, cheaper labor, and more pliable workers,” according to the Beast.

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