President Donald Trump’s new Kennedy Center boss went from sorting the venue’s toilets to becoming one of its top dogs by talking construction with a president intent on remaking the arts landmark, according to a new report.
Matt Floca, a low-profile operations executive suddenly elevated to chief operating officer and executive director after Ric Grenell’s ouster, appears to have landed the job because he spoke Trump’s language—redevelopment.
Trump, 79, took a close personal interest in the center’s overhaul, toured the complex months ago, and came away impressed by the facilities man who walked him through what the place needed, CNN reported.
One former colleague put Floca’s old remit to CNN in blunt terms—he was in charge of “HVAC and toilets.”
Floca’s CV shows he is not an arts-world grandee parachuted in to woo donors and soothe stars. He is a construction manager who joined the Kennedy Center in January 2024 after years in district government facilities roles, and holds a degree in construction management from Louisiana State University, where he graduated in 2009.
That appears to have made him a natural fit for a president who has treated the Kennedy Center less like a repertory house than his own renovation pet project.
As the Daily Beast reported in December, Trump’s handpicked board voted to tack Trump’s name onto the building even though lawmakers and scholars said Congress, not the board, has the power to rename the memorial. Reuters later reported that Trump declared during the March 16 board meeting, “What I do best in life is build,” as he defended shutting the center for a fast-track overhaul after the July 4 celebrations.
Floca also had another advantage, according to CNN—he was not Ric Grenell. Grenell, 59, arrived as Trump’s political enforcer and became the public face of the center’s makeover. But his tenure brought artist withdrawals, executive exits, and a steady churn of backlash.
The Beast reported on his removal, the weak-sales angst around the renovation, and the departure of National Symphony Orchestra executive Jean Davidson as the center reeled from Trump’s takeover. Issa Rae, Béla Fleck, Louise Penny, Ben Folds, and Renée Fleming were among the art figures who pulled out.
By mid-March, Trump had decided to move on, pushing Grenell aside and installing Floca as chief operating officer and executive director just as the board approved the two-year closure.
Kennedy Center insiders told CNN that Trump bonded quickly with Floca over construction, called him often, and saw him as a trusted pair of hands for the physical rebuild. The same people also described him as a stopgap—a steady operator for the worksite, not necessarily the person to run every other part of a national arts institution.
That matters because rebuilding the structure is only half the Kennedy Center’s challenge.
The shutdown follows months of cancellations and resignations. CNN reported that board-subcommittee minutes show staffing could be cut by an estimated 75 to 175 positions from a workforce of roughly 300.
Theater companies book years ahead. Donors need to be handled while the doors are shut. Artists need convincing to come back when the scaffolding comes down. Floca may be exactly the man Trump wants to shepherd steel, stone, and systems. Whether he is the man who can rebuild the institution around them is a different question.
Trump himself all but said so at the White House board lunch last week. According to CNN, he praised Floca, said he thought he would do a good job, then added that if he did not, “Matt, you’re fired.”
White House spokeswoman Liz Huston told the Daily Beast that Trump was “committed to making the Trump-Kennedy Center the finest performing arts facility in the world.”
The Beast has also contacted the Kennedy Center for comment.
