Ousted Kennedy Center boss Ric Grenell has launched a furious tirade against Washington’s media, accusing them of being frauds while praising a contentious MAGA influencer for “real” journalism.
The newly replaced Trump acolyte, who has frequently clashed with reporters, reposted a video by conservative influencer Nick Shirley, who claims to have uncovered more than $170 million in alleged fraud connected to government programs in California.
“This is real journalism,” Grenell wrote in a post on X.
“This is how you hold the government accountable. There are too many gossips posing as reporters in Washington who simply recycle the attacks that their colleagues make on people they don’t like… So many reporters today are just too lazy to find a scoop. They just attack people with opinions.”
Grenell was ousted by Donald Trump this week after a difficult year at the helm of the Kennedy Center, which has suffered numerous artist cancellations and plummeting ticket sales ever since the president appointed himself as chairman, added his name to the title, and moved to renovate the facility in his own image.
“He was a little rough with a couple of the people, but that’s okay, they’ve survived,” Trump said of Grenell during a board meeting at the White House on Monday.
“Some of the artistes… they took a pounding from Ric.”
The former ambassador has now been replaced with Matt Floca, a 38-year-old Biden-era facilities chief, who will oversee the center’s renovations over the next two years. But Grenell, 58, does not appear to be taking things well, raging against the media and critics for days.
On Monday night, for instance, he posted an entire text message exchange with New York Times journalist Elizabeth Williamson, who politely asked him what he planned to do next after a “turbulent” year.
In response, he wrote, in part: “You are such a left wing hack who is not interested in the truth, but interested in attacking Republicans and manipulating the news for your own far left agenda.”
On Saturday, he also lashed out against Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who has been investigating the center’s finances, and accused Grenell of putting the institution “out of business.”
“Your buffoonery knows no limits,” the 59-year-old began a lengthy X post.
The latest comments about Shirley underpin the debate over the growing influence of political content creators online—and the credibility of Shirley’s work.
Shirley, a 23-year-old YouTuber whose videos regularly promote conservative themes, gained national attention in late 2025 after posting a viral investigation alleging large-scale fraud at Somali-American-run childcare centers in Minnesota.
The video amassed more than 100 million views on social media and drew praise from prominent conservatives, including Vice President JD Vance.
But the reporting has also drawn sharp scrutiny. Minnesota officials said they had not found evidence of fraud at the specific facilities Shirley highlighted, and some childcare providers accused him of misrepresenting their operations by filming outside normal business hours.
Critics also raised concerns about his methods, noting the video relied largely on brief site visits, interviews with bystanders and public payment records rather than documentary proof of wrongdoing.
Now he has set his sights on Governor Gavin Newsom’s home state.
“California is the breeding ground for voter fraud in America, as millions of people vote with no ID, month-long election processes, inaccurate voter rolls, dead people caught voting, even a dog successfully registered to vote, and voter verification is all based on your signature—not who you actually are,” Shirley claimed on X.
“Thank God there are young reporters like Nick exposing the waste,” Grenell wrote. “But there are still too many DC reporters who are just a waste—frauds who abuse the label of journalist.”
