Unofficial MAGA spokesperson Scott Jennings has railed against performers who plan to boycott President Donald Trump’s attendance at the Kennedy Center next month.
Jennings reacted Wednesday to a CNN report that stated at least 10 cast members from Les Misérables are due to snub the president’s slated visit to the national cultural hub in Washington, D.C. As well as taking in a performance of the epic redemption story, based on the Victor Hugo novel, Trump will also hold a fundraiser for the center.
Speaking on The Arena, the network’s token Republican suggested that the politically motivated gesture means “these people are too fragile to show up for work.” On X he added that the protest “perfectly illustrates the left’s disconnect with the working class.”
Sources told CNN that performers were given the option to sit out the June 11 performance and up to a dozen chose to do so. The group of refuseniks includes both major cast members and those from the ensemble.
“The Kennedy Center is like America’s theatre. I mean, the president appoints the people who are on the board of the Kennedy Center, we use it for all kinds of big national events no matter who the president is,” Jennings told The Arena host Kasie Hunt.
What Jennings failed to mention is that Trump parachuted himself in as chairman of the board as part of a sensational takeover in February. He then purged the board of Democratic figures and began re-shaping the Kennedy Center in his “anti-woke” image.
According to leaked audio of a board meeting attended by Trump, reported by the Washington Post, he vowed to stop handing Kennedy Center awards to “radical left lunatics” and called for “non-woke” programming.
Referring to the Les Misérables boycott, Jennings said it was “kind of sad to me that these folks are choosing to grind personal political axes instead of going to work at the Kennedy Center.”
He added: “Most people in America don’t have the luxury of being able to call in sick from politics. But it sounds like that’s what these people did.”
Former Democratic National Committee communications director Xochitl Hinojosa pointed out that Trump “politicized” the center when he made himself the head.
Since Trump hijacked the center earlier this year tension has bristled. As part of his takeover, he fired board members appointed by former President Joe Biden and even recruited figures like Fox News host Laura Ingraham to the traditionally bi-partisan board.
As well as naming himself chair, the president installed MAGA loyalist Ric Grenell as director.
The tangible effect of all of this will likely result in Trump’s Broadway favorites, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats and Phantom of the Opera, taking precedence on the center’s billing.
“NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA — ONLY THE BEST,” Trump wrote on Truth Social shortly after his cultural coup was announced.
The president has also said he will also be revamping the Kennedy Center’s annual Honors gala, by encouraging it to lean more to the right. He has sounded out honouring dead stars like Luciano Pavarotti, Elvis Presley, and even baseball legend Babe Ruth.
He has also floated the idea of hosting the bash himself. “Believe me, I don’t want to do it, I don’t want to do it,” he said in a leaked recording, before calling himself the “king of ratings.”
In response to Trump’s hostile takeover, artists including Issa Rae, Shonda Rhimes, and Ben Folds resigned from their leadership roles at the center, and Jeffrey Seller, producer of the hit musical Hamilton, canceled the show’s upcoming run.
Grenell, meanwhile, said he wasn’t aware of the planned boycott by “vapid and intolerant artists.”
“Any performer who isn’t professional enough to perform for patrons of all backgrounds, regardless of political affiliation, won’t be welcomed,” he told CNN.
“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.”
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