The president of the Kennedy Center intends to seek $1 million in damages from a jazz musician who abruptly cancelled a scheduled performance over the iconic D.C. performing arts center’s rebranding to include President Donald Trump’s name.
Ambassador Richard Grenell sent a letter to Chuck Reed on Sunday claiming his “last-minute” cancellation of his Dec. 24 Jazz Jam performance was a “political stunt” in protest of the Center’s being renamed the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. Grenell claimed the musician’s cancellation cost the center “considerably” due to the artist’s “dismal ticket sales and lack of donor support.”
“Your decision to withdraw at the last moment—explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure—is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution,” Grenell wrote in his letter. “This is your official notice that we will seek $1 million in damages from you for this political stunt.”
Reed has led the Christmas Eve Jazz Jam at the Center since 2006. Reed told the Associated Press in an email he explicitly pulled out of the long-time performance due to the renaming.
In the letter, Grenell added that Reed’s performances on Christmas Eve were not selling well, and that the Center would continue to put on jazz performances to “sold out crowds regardless of their political leanings.”
“Regrettably, your action surrenders to the sad bullying tactics employed by certain elements on the left, who have sought to intimidate artists into boycotting performances at our national cultural center,” Grenell continued.
Trump and Grenell launched a 2025 effort to revamp the Kennedy Center, already bringing in a comparatively large donor haul compared to the institution under previous administrations. The president himself joined the Center’s board as its chairman in February to oversee the project.
Neither the Kennedy Center nor Reed immediately responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
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