Donald Trump’s move to take control of Washington D.C’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has led to a staggering 50 percent drop in ticket sales, according to a report.
Trump fired the Kennedy Center’s leadership upon his return to the Oval Office and put MAGA loyalist Richard Grenell in charge of the famed institution.
In the week that followed the decision ticket sales halved, Kennedy Center staff members told The Washington Post anonymously for fear of reprisals.
And it is not just audience members who have deserted the Kennedy Center.
Actress and comedian Issa Rae was the first major artist to announce that she was canceling her show there.
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“Unfortunately, due to what I believe to be an infringement on the values of an institution that has faithfully celebrated artists of all backgrounds through all mediums, I’ve decided to cancel my appearance at this venue,” she said in an Instagram story on February 13, with tickers being refunded.
Canadian mystery writer Louise Penny also pulled out of her scheduled appearance.
“In DC, but in the wake of Trump taking over, I have pulled out. It was, of course, going to be a career highlight. But there are things far more important than that,” she wrote on Facebook.
The ticket sales slump comes after Trump’s White House press secretary bragged that, “The Kennedy Center learned the hard way that if you go woke, you will go broke.”
She added: “President Trump and the members of his newly-appointed board are devoted to rebuilding the Kennedy Center into a thriving and highly respected institution where all Americans, and visitors from around the world, can enjoy the arts with respect to America’s great history and traditions.”
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Grenell himself told Fox News Digital that Trump’s leadership would see a “Golden Age of the Arts” in the nation’s capital and “sell tickets.”
“The Kennedy Center has zero cash on hand and zero dollars in reserves – while taking tens of millions of dollars in public funds. We must have programs that sell tickets. We can’t afford to pay for content that doesn’t at least pay for itself right now. I wish we didn’t have to consider the costs of production, but we do.
“The good news is that there are plenty of shows that are very popular, and therefore the ticket sales will pay for themselves.”
The Kennedy Center was first conceived in the late 1950s, during the administration of Republican President Dwight Eisenhower, who backed a bill from the Democratic-led Congress calling for a “National Culture Center.”
In the early 1960s, Democrat President John F. Kennedy launched a fundraising initiative, and his successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, signed into law a 1964 bill renaming the project the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. Kennedy had been assassinated the year before.
Construction began in 1965 and the center formally opened six years later, with a premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass.
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