Sidelined President Donald Trump loyalist and Kennedy Center boss Richard Grenell is spending his days shouting at social media.
Grenell, parachuted in as Trump’s man at the arts center in D.C. after the president gave it a MAGA makeover, has found himself with a lot of time on his hands since it was announced that it would close for two years from July for renovations.
Grenell, who has repeatedly appeared to grow enraged as artists scrap shows at the venue, citing concerns about Trump and his administration, this time aimed his ire at a CBS Mornings segment, which he viewed as not sufficiently MAGAfied.
“There’s no reporter’s name on this fake story. CBS Mornings isn’t a person. This isn’t journalism,” he raged on X on Thursday, whilst his Trump admin colleagues focused on the Iran war and other globally significant issues.
The segment he blew up at was about under-fire FBI Director Kash Patel’s recent decision to fire nearly a dozen FBI agents who worked on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s probe into Trump’s classified documents case.
Network journalists spoke to sources who claimed that many of those agents were working on global counterintelligence cases, including some involving Iran. One source called the firings “devastating to the FBI’s Iran program.”
Grenell, described by two former colleagues as “a ruthlessly ambitious a--hole,” climbed his way to the ambassadorship in Germany and later acting Director of National Intelligence in the final days of Trump’s first term.
However, he really wanted to be Secretary of State. Instead, Grenell, 59, was appointed “special presidential envoy for special missions” early in Trump’s second term, a consolation prize after his pestering campaign for what is now Marco Rubio’s job fizzled.
Grenell lost out despite allegedly bribing conservative social media influencers to talk him up online for the position.
Grenell was Trump’s man on the front line as the Kennedy Center’s programming was given a MAGA makeover after its board was nixed. CBS, too, has been given a similar makeover under Bari Weiss.
In the latest change at the network, Shawna Thomas, who has been CBS Mornings’ executive producer since 2021, has announced to staff that she will soon leave the program. The move, reported by Variety, comes as Weiss tries to hire a Trump-friendly host for the program.
But instead of worrying about CBS, Grenell should worry about his own programming. Last week, he lost it again when another performance group canceled its event at the once-renowned arts venue.
The San Francisco Ballet announced it had withdrawn from a five-day run at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts scheduled for May. “Professional artists should perform for everyone—not just for people they agree with politically,” the Trump appointee raged in a comment given to the New York Times on Saturday.
Grenell has repeatedly appeared to grow enraged as artists scrap shows at the storied music, theater and dance institution, citing concerns about Trump and his administration.
“You just made it political and caved to the woke mob who wants you to perform for only Lefties,” Grenell posted on X after Grammy-winning bluegrass performer Béla Fleck withdrew from a concert at the venue in January.
Announcing the shuttering in a Truth Social post, Trump wrote last month that he would “temporarily” close the center for “Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding.”
The Kennedy Center has been contacted for comment.
