Latest news with #RicGrenell
Telegraph
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Democrats dupe Kennedy Center into hosting gay Pride concert
Democrat senators have duped the Kennedy Center into hosting a gay Pride concert after Donald Trump pledged to end its 'woke programming'. The performing arts institution in Washington, DC, which is led by a senior member of Mr Trump's administration, had apparently been told that the senators intended to put on a talent show. Instead, it was used to stage a Pride event where performers, among them the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, sang Broadway tunes in protest against Mr Trump. Ric Grenell, whom Mr Trump installed as president of the performing arts center after replacing its board with loyalists, said they had engaged in good faith with the request but instead had been used for a 'political stunt'. Earlier this year, the US president assumed control of the Kennedy Center, denouncing its programme as too 'wokey' and pledging to bring in a 'Golden Age of arts of culture'. Numerous artists have since boycotted the venue, which recently cancelled its 'Tapestry of Pride' to celebrate Pride month. John Hickenlooper, one of the Democrat senators to host Monday's event, said: 'What's happening in the world is deeply concerning, but even in our darkest hours, we must continue to seek out the light. 'The LGBTQ community has long embodied this resilience, maintaining joy and creativity in the face of adversity.' Mr Hickenlooper, along with senators Tammy Baldwin, Jacky Rosen, Brian Schatz and Elizabeth Warren, rented out the Justice Forum lecture hall for the 90-minute 'Love is Love' concert, which explored 'gay characters, gay culture, gay music and gay Pride'. It was produced by Jeffrey Seller, the lead producer of 'Hamilton', who recently cancelled a run of the musical at the Kennedy Centre scheduled for 2026. 'This is our way of reoccupying the Kennedy Centre,' he said. 'This is a form of saying, 'We are here, we exist, and you can't ignore us'. This is a protest, and a political act.' Mr Grenell said staff working for Mr Hickenlooper had approached the centre about putting on a talent show and that it had been 'pleased to welcome them'. 'We were only later notified by the New York Times that Senator Hickenlooper's event was instead an invite-only political stunt,' he said in a statement on social media. 'Once again, the Kennedy Centre was being used by political operatives to larp as victims of intolerance in order to get a story in the Times.' He continued: 'No one has been cancelled by the Kennedy Centre; we welcome everyone who wants to celebrate the arts, including our compatriots on the other side of the political aisle. 'We especially welcome artists and audience members who come to the Kennedy Centre not for partisan political pranks but to experience excellence in the performing arts.' Earlier this month, many of the seats in the audience were filled by drag queens when Mr Trump visited for a performance of Les Misérables. One told local media they attended the musical to 'protest in our own way' by 'existing in the space that they've tried to block us from'. Ms Warren, a former contender for the Democrats' presidential nomination, said the concert was an attempt to fight the Trump administration's 'hateful attacks' with 'resilience and joy'. 'We're celebrating that joy at the Kennedy Centre with artists and stage workers for a special performance,' she said. 'I'll never stop fighting to make sure every single person is free to live exactly who they are.' Ms Baldwin, the first openly gay US senator, said the country had 'some big hills to climb' to reach 'true equality'. 'Look no further than the Trump administration's shameful attacks on the LGBTQ community and our right to live a life with dignity, respect, and free from discrimination,' she claimed. 'While this administration won't say it, we will: to all LGBTQ members of our community, we see you, we respect you, and we are proud to celebrate you.'
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump ally Ric Grenell says he'd ‘look at' California bid if Kamala Harris runs
Donald Trump loyalist Ric Grenell says he would 'have to' strongly consider running for California governor in 2026 if former vice-president Kamala Harris signs up to campaign for the position. Grenell – a foreign policy adviser to the president and the interim director of Washington DC's John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – made the remark during an interview airing Sunday on the Politico podcast The Conversation with Dasha Burns. 'If Kamala runs, I think there's a whole bunch of Republicans who are going to have to look at it – not just me,' Grenell said to Burns in preview materials published ahead of the interview. 'If she runs, it is going to make me have to take a look at it.' Grenell told Burns, 'Right now, I'm not running for governor' – but he did say he had recently spoken to Trump about entering the race. He declined to share details about the conversation, which he brought up as Trump vocally criticized California governor Gavin Newsom's response to anti-immigration and customs enforcement (Ice) protests in Los Angeles. Newsom, who is not running for re-election because of term limits, has since sued Trump over his decision to send in military personnel to LA amid the Ice protests. Politico reported in March that Harris was weighing a run to succeed Newsom, her fellow Democrat, after she lost the presidential election in November to Trump. Citing sources close to her, the outlet added that Harris – a former US senator for California – was giving herself until the end of the summer to make a final decision. California's Republicans 'would love' Harris to run for governor because they believe it might vault the race into the national conversation and 'create a fundraising bonanza' that could benefit them in what is otherwise a staunchly Democratic state, Politico has also written. Grenell has a home in the LA area. He has previously been an ambassador to Germany, acting director of national intelligence and Trump's envoy for special missions. He was more recently involved in securing the release of Americans detained in Venezuela. And, in February, Trump made him the interim director of the Kennedy Center. In his talk with Burns, Grenell also addressed the mixed reaction that greeted Trump Wednesday when he attended a performance of Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center. Grenell maintained that the Kennedy Center is 'much more tolerant' nowadays despite boos being directed at Trump on Wednesday, when he also got some cheers. 'We want people here who sit next to each other, who voted for somebody completely different for president,' Grenell, the first openly gay person to lead the US intelligence community, said to Burns. 'No one gets vocal and no one gets into an argument because we're watching Les Mis. 'You know – that's the whole idea of tolerance.'
The Guardian
15-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Trump ally Ric Grenell says he'd ‘look at' California bid if Kamala Harris runs
Donald Trump loyalist Ric Grenell says he would 'have to' strongly consider running for California governor in 2026 if former vice-president Kamala Harris signs up to campaign for the position. Grenell – a foreign policy adviser to the president and the interim director of Washington DC's John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – made the remark during an interview airing Sunday on the Politico podcast The Conversation with Dasha Burns. 'If Kamala runs, I think there's a whole bunch of Republicans who are going to have to look at it – not just me,' Grenell said to Burns in preview materials published ahead of the interview. 'If she runs, it is going to make me have to take a look at it.' Grenell told Burns, 'Right now, I'm not running for governor' – but he did say he had recently spoken to Trump about entering the race. He declined to share details about the conversation, which he brought up as Trump vocally criticized California governor Gavin Newsom's response to anti-immigration and customs enforcement (Ice) protests in Los Angeles. Newsom, who is not running for re-election because of term limits, has since sued Trump over his decision to send in military personnel to LA amid the Ice protests. Politico reported in March that Harris was weighing a run to succeed Newsom, her fellow Democrat, after she lost the presidential election in November to Trump. Citing sources close to her, the outlet added that Harris – a former US senator for California – was giving herself until the end of the summer to make a final decision. California's Republicans 'would love' Harris to run for governor because they believe it might vault the race into the national conversation and 'create a fundraising bonanza' that could benefit them in what is otherwise a staunchly Democratic state, Politico has also written. Grenell has a home in the LA area. He has previously been an ambassador to Germany, acting director of national intelligence and Trump's envoy for special missions. He was more recently involved in securing the release of Americans detained in Venezuela. And, in February, Trump made him the interim director of the Kennedy Center. In his talk with Burns, Grenell also addressed the mixed reaction that greeted Trump Wednesday when he attended a performance of Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center. Grenell maintained that the Kennedy Center is 'much more tolerant' nowadays despite boos being directed at Trump on Wednesday, when he also got some cheers. 'We want people here who sit next to each other, who voted for somebody completely different for president,' Grenell, the first openly gay person to lead the US intelligence community, said to Burns. 'No one gets vocal and no one gets into an argument because we're watching Les Mis. 'You know – that's the whole idea of tolerance.'
Telegraph
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
The Democrat mayor in denial about the violence ripping her city apart
A few months ago, Karen Bass was accused of standing by as Los Angeles burned. Now, the city's mayor has been accused of 'fanning the flames' – but this time of the rioting, violence and looting that has consumed its downtown area. Critics say Ms Bass has provoked clashes between law enforcement and protesters, who have been demonstrating against raids by immigration authorities since Friday, and is in denial about the scale of the crisis that has gripped the City of Angels. A constant presence on Left-leaning CNN and MSNBC this week, she has routinely downplayed the violent scenes even as cars have been torched and journalists have been injured by non-lethal rounds. When immigration officials raided workplaces in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, Ms Bass declared herself 'deeply angered' and hit out at what she claimed was an attempt to 'sow terror in our communities'. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, later claimed the mayor had 'embarked on one of the most outrageous campaigns of lies this country has ever seen from an elected official, blaming President Trump and brave law enforcement officers for the violence'. Critics say Ms Bass's words inflamed the tensions between immigration officials and demonstrators, provoking riots that have lasted for days. 'Karen Bass whipped all of this up,' Ric Grenell, Donald Trump's presidential envoy for special missions, wrote on social media. 'She attacked the rule of law. She undermined democracy. The mayor of LA is creating chaos in LA.' This week, she issued a statement downplaying the scale of the violence, even as several journalists caught up in the ensuing melee were shot by police using non-lethal rounds, including The Telegraph's Jon Putman. Mr Putman, who was struck in the ear, narrowly avoided serious injury, but said a clean shot would have put him 'out of commission'. Nick Stern, a British news photographer, was shot in the leg with a non-lethal round on Saturday, and when a paramedic cut off his clothes found a 'five centimetre hole with muscle hanging out of it'. If Ms Bass is an effective rabble rouser as her critics claim, then the evidence shows she is less adept at cooling tensions. Over the weekend, she called on rioters to stop looting businesses in downtown Los Angeles, but the dozens of masked figures who raided the CVS, Adidas and T-Mobile shops among others seem to have been unmoved. Finally, with crime spiralling out of control, Ms Bass decided to act on Monday. 'We reached a tipping point,' she said at a news conference, announcing a curfew between 8pm and 6am local time after more than two dozen businesses were vandalised. Others might have reached the same conclusion days ago. At that point, she conceded the 'vandalism and violence' had been 'significant', long after images of burned-out cars and masked protesters had made their way around the world. Moses Castillo, a former LAPD detective who responded to the Rodney King riots that gripped Los Angeles in the early 1990s, criticised Ms Bass for being too slow and indecisive. 'I think she's trying to play catch up,' he told Fox News. 'I think if she had been very forceful in the beginning that we're not going to tolerate these crimes and allow police officers to do their job and arrest people on sight, I think it would have been different. 'She's now saying that these crimes will not be tolerated, looting will not be tolerated, but it's a little bit too late.' To Ms Bass's political enemies – and there are many, including within her own party – these are familiar themes from the Los Angeles mayor's playbook. When the city found itself in the grip of devastating wildfires back in January, she fumbled her public statements, rowed with officials, and belatedly tried to get a grip on the crisis. Ms Bass wasn't in Los Angeles when the fires broke out. She wasn't even in California, or the US. She was in Ghana to attend the inauguration of its president, and hours after the Pacific Palisades blaze started she was posing for photographs at a reception organised by the US ambassador. The trip was a 'mistake', she later conceded, adding: 'I hated the fact that I was out of the city when the city needed me the most.' When she did return, Kristin Crowley, the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) chief blamed her for slashing their budget, leaving her colleagues defenceless when the fires broke out. By the time the smoke cleared, the wildfires had consumed some 16,000 buildings, forced 200,000 people to evacuate, and killed 30. But for some ill-judged comments about Cuba's Communist regime, it's possible that Los Angeles could have been spared the worst of these crises. Joe Biden, the former US president, briefly considered Ms Bass as a potential running mate for the 2020 election, before she won the mayoral election two years later. But it subsequently emerged that Ms Bass had visited Communist Cuba several times as a young woman in the 1970s, and when Fidel Castro died in 2016 after ruling the country for decades, she lamented 'a great loss to the people of Cuba'. That was enough to end the prospect of any role in the Biden campaign. Ms Bass's loss, as it turned out, was Los Angeles' loss too.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Trump booed and cheered at the Kennedy Center while attending 'Les Misérables'
WASHINGTON (AP) — The drama in the audience rivaled the spectacle on stage on Wednesday at the Kennedy Center, where President Donald Trump went to the opening night of 'Les Misérables' as he tightens his grip on the venerable performing arts institution. It was his first time attending a show there since his election, and he was booed and cheered as he took his seat alongside first lady Melania Trump. Near the end of the intermission, someone loudly cursed his name, drawing applause. Several drag queens were in the crowd, their presence a protest against Trump's complaints that the Kennedy Center had hosted too many drag shows in the past. Despite the condemnation, the event had a MAGA-does-Broadway feel. Ric Grenell, the Trump-appointed interim leader of the Kennedy Center, was there, as were Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha. Before the show began, Attorney General Pam Bondi chatted with guests and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took selfies. Laura Loomer, the conspiracy theorist who has advised Trump on personnel decisions, posted a video from a seat near the stage. Trump walked the red carpet with the first lady when they arrived at the Kennedy Center, which he's been remaking in his image while excising what he describes as liberal ideology. 'We want to bring it back, and we want to bring it back better than ever,' Trump said. The Republican president has a particular affection for 'Les Misérables,' the sprawling musical set in 19th-century France, and has occasionally played its songs at his events. One of them, 'Do You Hear the People Sing?,' is a revolutionary rallying cry inspired by the 1832 rebellion against the French king. The three-hour production featured singing and dancing, with the sounds of explosions and gunfire filling the theater as protesters and soldiers clashed on stage. For Trump's critics, it was an unnerving echo of what's unfolding in Los Angeles, where Trump has deployed National Guard troops in response to protests over his deportation policies. 'Someone explain the plot to him," California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, wrote on social media. Terry Gee, a bartender, bought his ticket for the show in November and didn't mind Trump's presence. It's his sixth time seeing 'Les Misérables,' and he said, 'I'm going to enjoy the show regardless." Hannah Watkins, a nurse, only learned that Trump would be there when the Kennedy Center distributed information about extra security and she searched online to see what was happening. 'I've seen a lot of famous people so far, which is exciting,' said Watkins, who had claimed a spot near the VIP entrance with her mother. 'Honestly, we just like 'Les Mis' and are excited to be here.' Before Trump, presidential involvement in the Kennedy Center's affairs had been limited to naming members to the board of trustees and attending the taping of its annual honors program in the fall. But after returning to office in January, Trump stunned the arts world by firing the Kennedy Center's longtime director and board and replacing them with loyalists, who then named him as chairman. Trump promised to overhaul its programming, management and even appearance as part of an effort to put his stamp on the national arts scene. His latest moves have upset some of the center's patrons and performers. In March, the audience booed the Vances after they slipped into upper-level seats to hear the National Symphony Orchestra. Trump appointed Usha Vance to the Kennedy Center board along with Bondi, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Fox News Channel hosts Maria Bartiromo and Laura Ingraham, among other supporters. Sales of subscription packages are said to have declined since Trump's takeover, and several touring productions, including 'Hamilton,' have canceled planned runs at the center. Actor Issa Rae and musician Rhiannon Giddens scrapped scheduled appearances, and Kennedy Center consultants including musician Ben Folds and singer Renée Fleming resigned. Understudies may have performed in some roles Wednesday night because of boycotts by 'Les Misérables' cast members, but Trump said he wasn't bothered by anyone skipping the performance. 'I couldn't care less,' he said. Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has adopted a more aggressive posture toward the arts. The White House has taken steps to cancel millions of dollars in previously awarded federal humanities grants to arts and culture groups, and Trump's budget blueprint proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Trump has also targeted Smithsonian museums by signing executive orders to restrict their funding and by attempting to fire the director of the National Portrait Gallery. The president characterized previous programming at the Kennedy Center as 'out of control with rampant political propaganda' and said it featured 'some very inappropriate shows,' including a 'Marxist anti-police performance' and 'lesbian-only Shakespeare.' The Kennedy Center, which is supported by government money and private donations, opened in 1971 and for decades has been seen as an apolitical celebration of the arts. It 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, Democratic 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. ___ Associated Press writer Mark Kennedy in New York contributed to this report. Darlene Superville And Chris Megerian, The Associated Press
