INTERVIEW: Kennedy Center's Ric Grenell slashes millions from Kennedy Center DEI programs, bashes "criminal" spending

The Kennedy Center is undergoing a fundamental makeover under its new Chairman, President Donald Trump, and new president, Ric Grenell. The latest move is the elimination of millions of dollars of DEI-aligned programs, which will save approximately $2,530,000 every year. In an interview with the Washington Reporter, Grenell confirmed the cuts and blasted the previous administration’s “criminal” mismanagement of the Kennedy Center’s finances.

“What the heck is the Kennedy Center doing funding a group called ‘Social Impact’ when we have $0 in the bank and $0 in reserve?” Grenell asked. Under his leadership, that department is getting massively downsized; its DEI programs are being cut, while its education programs are remaining intact. The department’s “Culture Caucus” is one of the casualties of the cuts; the office, which spends approximately $300,000 annually, partners with organizations like “Crushing Colonialism,” which works to “control our narratives in order to crush colonialism” in the “so-called United States.”

“For the last several months before I got to the Kennedy Center, all staff payroll was being done through debt reserves.” Grenell said of the Center’s finances. “Our new CFO is trying to renegotiate with banks…But at the end of the day, what my management is doing for the Kennedy Center is going through every department, questioning the number of people and the mission for each department, and trying to get us refocused on a common sense mission: bringing arts and entertainment to the Kennedy Center that actually sell tickets. We had spent way too much on programming that doesn't bring in any revenue. And while I'm all for arts education, we can't go into debt to do arts education; my solution is to bring in common sense programming that brings in enough money to use that money for niche programming in the future.”

“No matter what the programming is, whether it's far left or far right or niche, fringe, programming, if it doesn't sell enough tickets, then we’d better have a whole bunch of money in the bank to justify the arts education outreach. I'm all for arts education. I'm all for challenging the status quo and finding ways to educate people on fringe programming. I actually am somebody who enjoys being challenged by art. I collect art that's not always for the masses and I certainly appreciate it. But my my job as the leader is to make sure that the Kennedy Center has a sound fiscal policy, and when you look across the board at the executive pay and the decisions on funding and building operations, I think it's actually criminal for leadership to spend so wildly while asking the public to pay for programming.”

Some of those programs the Kennedy Center had funded also ran afoul of priorities from the White House. One, like Crushing Colonialism, is currently planning a “Decolonized Beatz Indigenous World Pride” event, which it describes as an “unapologetic global gathering celebrating the creativity and pride of 2SLGBTQIA+ Indigenous artists, performers, and storytellers—especially our multiply-Disabled, Chronically Ill, and multiply-Marginalized relatives. The event is set to take place May 30 and June 1, 2025, on Piscataway Land (so-called Washington, D.C.).”

The Kennedy Center’s decision to cut ties with programs that support Crushing Colonialism isn’t a surprise, given the group’s public condemnations of “Trump’s fascist agenda.”

“In a sweeping attack on queer and trans communities, his administration forced the Kennedy Center to withdraw support from any event featuring Drag or “Drag Adjacent” performances,” the group wrote. “This comes amid a broader assault, including bans on non-U.S. flags at embassies and frozen funding for global human rights and democracy work.”

The Decolonized Beatz Indigenous World Pride lineup “celebrated Indigenous Drag artists like Lady Shug and Ritni Tears—was agreed upon by the Social Impact department and Crushing Colonialism in 2024,” the group noted. “When Crushing Colonialism made clear that we would never remove Drag performers, gender-nonconforming relatives, trans kin, or Two-Spirit identities from our event, the Kennedy Center swiftly refused to continue supporting the event.”

Crushing Colonialism did not respond to request for comment.

Another office being shut down is the “Social Practice Residencies.” According to the Kennedy Center’s website, this division “engages specific communities and proposes critical interventions within existing social systems that inspire debate and social change.” The current website of the program also includes a land acknowledgment: “The Kennedy Center acknowledges that we are standing on the traditional land of the Nacotchtank and Piscataway peoples past and present, and honor with gratitude the land itself and the people who have been the stewards of this land throughout the generations.”

One of the resident fellows of this program discussed, for example, the “Music for [Prison] Abolition” for 45 minutes, where he sat in front of a small photo of the communist terrorist Che Guevara. As of time of publication, the video had 995 views on the official Kennedy Center YouTube page.

Another video produced by one of the DEI office partners featured the “Sanitation Song,” where a singer in six panels of a black and white video repeated “wash my hands, sanitation sanitation…I must remember to wash my hands”; the song was released shortly after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another example of the type of programming being cut by Grenell is the “Cartography” series, which has spent over $1 million on art that its critics within the Center call transparently political.

Under Grenell, the Kennedy Center is undergoing a transformation to align more with the president’s agenda, while not sacrificing its world-renowned commitment to the arts. This weekend, the Center hosted the annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, where comedians from across the political spectrum roasted Trump and others — suggesting that concerns about Trump cracking down on the legendary center’s programming are “completely baseless,” one invitee told the Reporter.

This year’s Twain Prize saw celebrities like Bill Burr, Stephen Colbert, Sean Evans, Nikki Glaser, Will Ferrell, David Letterman, Kumail Nanjini, Tracy Morgan, John Mulaney, Adam Sandler, Andy Richter, Reggie Watts, Sarah Silverman, Robert Smigel, and more flock to the center to honor Conan O’Brien, this year’s recipient.

While Grenell is looking to save millions in budget cuts to the Kennedy Center, he made it clear that he supports the organization’s overall mission as being a living monument to President John F. Kennedy; when Grenell took Trump around for a multi-hour tour, he “strategically” showed Trump, a legendary builder, to show him that “the building is in terrible shape and is falling apart…the deferred maintenance on the building has been criminal, honestly, and that’s why I say that we are supposed to get $43 million for the building every year but money is fungible and it hasn’t been used properly, so we’re way, way behind on deferred maintenance.”

Grenell’s work is finding quick approval among Republicans in Congress; Rep. Mike Simpson (R., Idaho), who as Chairman of the Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, oversees federal funding for capital repairs and operations and maintenance at the Kennedy Center, supports eliminating DEI initiatives within the Kennedy Center. "Americans' tax dollars should not support, promote, or fund DEI in any way, shape, or form,” Simpson told the Reporter. "The divisive DEI agenda has nothing to do with promoting and celebrating the arts, and I applaud President Trump's efforts in combating these initiatives throughout the federal government."

The latest cuts are not expected to impact the Center’s work on broader education outreach or its renewed focus on engaging with talented artists.