Donald Trump’s own supporters within the Kennedy Center’s resident orchestra are “disgusted and terrified” by the president’s decision to add his name to their longtime artistic home.
Members of the National Symphony Orchestra, which has been based at the storied Washington, D.C., venue since the mid-1980s, told NOTUS that even the group’s Trumpiest musicians were worried about the backlash generated by the rebrand.
“Even the most far-right conservative, Trump-loving members of the orchestra who’ve loved the takeover are disgusted and terrified by the recent move of renaming the center,” one member said. “They just know inherently how difficult that’s gonna make every aspect of our lives by putting the man’s name on the building.”
Another said the sudden change created “anxiety and confusion” among musicians, who will soon begin negotiating a new collective bargaining contract. Many are reportedly on edge about how Trump’s interest in the venue could impact negotiations.
The president purged the Kennedy Center’s bipartisan board of trustees in February and took over as chairman of the new board, announcing he would be actively involved in the center’s programming and installing MAGA loyalist Ric Grenell as interim executive director.
The beleaguered arts venue has since been plagued by artist cancellations, boycotts, protests, and an embarrassing drop in ticket sales, with those artists who have remained describing the agony of performing for empty seats.
On Dec. 18, after months of the president openly fantasizing about renaming the center the Trump Kennedy Center, his hand-picked board voted to do just that, even though legal experts say only Congress has the power to change the name.
Within 24 hours, the venue’s website had been updated, and workers had added Trump’s name to the building.
Attendance at the NSO’s annual Christmas-season performance of George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah,” which ran from Dec. 18 to 21, was “anemic” this year, one of the orchestra members told NOTUS. The program is usually a best-seller.
And while some artists had already begun to pull out of scheduled performances even before the center’s renaming, the pace of cancellations has quickly accelerated over the past few weeks.
On Tuesday, Grammy Award-winning performer Béla Fleck announced he would not be performing alongside the NSO in February as planned.
“I see a lot of artists now saying, ‘I don’t even want to be in a building with that man’s name on it,’” one of the orchestra members said.
The Washington National Opera is also considering leaving because of declining ticket sales and donor confidence in the center, The Guardian reported in November.
The chair of the NSO Orchestra Committee told NOTUS in a statement: “At this time, musicians of the NSO do not wish to comment on our workplace. We hope you can understand and respect our position.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Kennedy Center for comment.
The Kennedy Center was initially commissioned as a “National Cultural Center” in 1958 under President Dwight Eisenhower. His successor, Kennedy, worked hard to raise funds for its construction after taking office in 1961, but was assassinated in November 1963.
The following year, President Lyndon Johnson signed a bill renaming the future center after the slain president to honor his memory and his commitment to the arts. Construction of the sprawling building began in 1966, and it was finally opened in 1971, with Richard Nixon in the presidential box Trump now calls his own.
