Op-Ed: Marisela Ramirez: As America’s Contractor in Chief, President Trump saved the Kennedy Center
Marisela Ramirez covered the Kennedy Center Honors from the red carpet. She explains in her latest op-ed how President Donald Trump and Ambassador Richard Grenell saved the center.
Back in 2019 during President Donald Trump’s first term, the COVID pandemic shook the world and Washington D.C. to their core. The arts and cultural heritage sectors took a brunt of the impact as restaurants and live performance venues were forced to shut their doors.
During the pandemic, I would frequently pace along the scenic Potomac River walkway in Georgetown and make a pit-stop at the Kennedy Center’s REACH building; its doors were open and its bathrooms were scarce. At that time, the REACH had just opened and served as the perfect outdoor space for performances when the 6-feet rule disrupted societal norms like sitting side-by-side inside a theater.
Upon entering the Kennedy Center, the grand marble halls were empty but the air of reverence remained as dust collected on the infamous red carpets. The venue endured COVID slowly decaying, as anything beautiful does when it’s neglected.
In the past, the scene was reminiscent of Anastasia’s “Once Upon a December,” where the missing princess envisions herself dancing with ghosts of patrons past — shimmering, ethereal figures in a beautiful, ghostly ballroom before being jolted back to the reality of the empty castle. As I stood in an empty foyer I hoped to one day see the Kennedy Center restored to its former glory post-pandemic.
That day came Sunday evening for the Kennedy Center Honors.
Celebrities seemingly stepped out of the pages of magazines in full-glam on the red carpet, sans a particle of dust, and childhood heroes appeared before my very eyes: actor and Rocky legend Sylvester Stallone, the fabulous Gloria Gaynor, the king of country George Strait, the iconic rock band Kiss, and actor-singer Michael Crawford.
Jaws dropped when famed rock’n’roll magician Criss Angel made a dazzling entrance on the red carpet in KISS’s thigh-high heeled boots. Angel’s enchantment even drew praise from the likes of Kari Lake, the Senior Advisor for the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
Both Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrived following the barrage of celebrities and cabinet members with the president proudly declaring that “we’ve raised a tremendous amount of money tonight for the building itself and for the charities overall. And we’re really happy…it’s been like it’s never been before. And this building, this beautiful building, is going to be brought back to life. We’ve already started and it’ll be better than it was from day one,” the president, who is also the chairman of the center’s board, said.
Just days before, the center was transformed for FIFA, but Sunday’s Honors brought another level of black-tie sophistication.
Picture perfect guests clinked champagne glasses in a revamped grand foyer; a band played on a stage surrounding the copper head of the building’s namesake, elaborate displays representative of each honoree to take photos, and golden high-top tables flanked with white and purple velvet couches scattered around the space for guests to relax. Elbow-to-elbow party-goers laughed, danced, and enjoyed small bites. The heartbeat of the Kennedy Center appeared to make a full resuscitation.
“The institution as a whole was really struggling before we got here 10 months ago but, there’s been a lot of good work, we’ve raised a lot of money, we’ve righted the ship in terms of our programming, it is common sense business decisions that are good for the whole nation and we are excited that the building has funding from President Trump who is also our chairman. So you’ll see a lot of physical renovations that’ll be great for our patrons and just make this place more exciting and more alive,” Roma Daravi, the Vice President of Public Relations said from the red carpet.
Inside the program itself, attendees enjoyed a variety of entertainers, singers, dancers, and the renowned National Symphony Orchestra. Frank Stallone gave an especially touching speech lauding his brother’s achievements and recalling their shared journey in filmmaking.
Entertainment overdrive sent those lucky enough to witness the show into a frenzy with standing ovations happening repeatedly. The elaborate sets for each different honoree were impressive to any theater goer; dazzling disco balls for Gloria Gaynor entranced the crowd and the famous KISS sign got Washington’s elite — even cabinet members stood up to dance.
But funding has been an uphill battle with what the Kennedy Center’s President Ric Grenell called, “fringe programming,” plaguing not just the Kennedy Center but Americans’ sentiments towards the arts in general, citing a report from the New York Times that reflects Americans’ enthusiasm at the highest level of theater is diminishing as Broadway struggles to sell tickets. The Times claims that it’s a tough climate for investors in Broadway musicals.
“When we arrived here, we were paying for staff with debt reserves. We had no money in the bank,” Grenell said. “President Trump decided to fix that. He wanted to engage.”
Under Trump, the Kennedy Center has raised a record $23 million for its 48th annual celebration, nearly doubling the $12.7 million raised last year under President Joe Biden.
Grenell, who comes from a finance background, says that the former Kennedy Center staff wasn’t focused on proper funding to upkeep the 17-acre site, featuring a main building of about 1.5 million square feet with multiple theaters. “We can’t just expect ticket sales to pay for any of these programs. It’s not acceptable, and no arts institution does that. But what we can expect is for donors to step in and say, ‘I believe in this programming’, I want people to see it.”
Since they’ve changed the programming, Grenell says that donors have come knocking. “The money has poured it. Corporations are here. I can just list the corporations tonight, Boeing,
CBS, Delta. They have come in in big ways, written big checks.”
A physical example of this enthusiasm is the newly dubbed, SyberJet Lounge at the Kennedy Center, the newly renamed Opera Circles Lounge, sponsored by SyberJet Aircraft CEO Trevor Milton, who previously said that “what’s been really awesome about Ambassador Grennell and Donald Trump is they’ve really pushed to bring this center back to be the number one place to attract talent.”
Cabinet members lauded the President’s efforts at the Kennedy Center as part of a larger effort to clean up Washington and its culture, including Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“This is the nation’s Performing Arts Center and the President loves Washington, D.C. We all do! We’ve been working super hard to make D.C. safe again and he wants to make D.C.
beautiful again,” Bondi said.
Describing the Honors as a beautiful event would be an understatement. The Kennedy Center and its entire lovely staff truly have outdone themselves. Brava!
Marisela Ramirez is a White House producer at Newsmax.