Drag queens fill seats at Trump's big night out at the theatre

Telegraph

12-06-2025

Drag queens threatened to steal Donald Trump's thunder as the US president attended a performance of Les Misérables in Washington.
Mr Trump wore a tuxedo and walked the red carpet with the First Lady at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday night.
The opening night performance was also attended by a group of drag queens who were loudly applauded as they took their seats in the auditorium.
The US president, however, received a mixture of cheers and boos when he appeared on the balcony before the show.
The musical was the first performance at the centre since Mr Trump took over as chairman of the board and appointed his supporters to its leadership.
Before the performance began, video posted to social media showed several theatregoers dressed in drag taking their seats and being applauded.
The drag queens – Tara Hoot, Ricky Rosa, Vagenesis and Maria Con Carne – waved to the crowd before taking their seats.
During the election campaign last year Mr Trump and Republicans used adverts to attack drag queens and transgender women.
In one advert, Kamala Harris, his presidential rival, appeared beside a person with a moustache wearing a dress.
On his first days in office, the US president issued a flurry of executive orders targeting diversity, equality and inclusion initiatives, a move critics said would persecute LGBT people.
On Wednesday night, Mr Trump and the First Lady received a mixed reaction when they entered the theatre.
Some in the auditorium stood and waved to the crowd, with some people booing and others chanting 'USA, USA'.
Mr Trump took over the reins of the celebrated cultural institution after claiming the shows it put on were 'woke' and that some were 'terrible'.
Speaking to journalists aboard Air Force One, he said he had not attended any performances himself but relied on reports.
'I didn't want to go,' he said. 'There was nothing I wanted to see.'
Mr Trump, a New Yorker by birth, said he had seen Les Misérables several times. The musical, based on the 1862 novel by Victor Hugo, tells the story of Jean Valjean, an ex-convict who serves 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread and breaks the law again after getting out.
The music was written by French composer Claude-Michel Schönberg and the musical had its first performance in 1980.
While speaking before the performance, Mr Trump defended his decision to send the National Guard and Marines to help quell protests in Los Angeles that have reached over six days and spread to other cities.
'If we weren't there that city would have been burning to the ground right now,' he said, claiming officials in California had failed to protect federal agents enforcing immigration arrest warrants.
Mr Trump said the first theatrical production he attended was Cats. The First Lady said hers had been The Phantom of the Opera.
Speaking of his hopes for the Kennedy Centre, the president said: 'We want to bring it back, and we want to bring it back better than ever.'