A delicate group of Kennedy Center actors who threaten to call curtains on a President Donald Trump visit have been excoriated for their intolerance.
CNN first reported ten out of the 12 actors in a Les Misérables tour group plan to boycott the D.C. institution’s performance because Trump plans to attend next month.
Kennedy Center director Richard Grenell has now delivered his own riposte to the thespians fearful of having their sensibilities challenged by seeing a Republican president in the audience.
“We haven’t heard this rumor,” read a statement from Grenell to Entertainment Weekly. “But the Kennedy Center will no longer fund intolerance.”
He made clear he will not tolerate artistic attempts at political statements, saying:
Any performer who isn’t professional enough to perform for patrons of all backgrounds, regardless of political affiliation, won’t be welcomed. In fact, we think it would be important to out those vapid and intolerant artists to ensure producers know who they shouldn’t hire — and that the public knows which shows have political litmus tests to sit in the audience.
The Kennedy Center wants to be a place where people of all political stripes sit next to each other and never ask who someone voted for but instead enjoy a performance together.
Grenell was appointed interim director of the Kennedy Center in February after Trump dumped the historic venue’s former leadership and assumed the position of board chairman, as Breitbart News reported.
A host of artists announced they would never appear there again in protest at Trump’s move.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump revealed plans to “make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN,” adding he was making changes, such as bringing an end to drag shows featured at the Kennedy Center “targeting” children.
Trump described the Kennedy Center as being “an American Jewel,” adding that it “must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage.”
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