During his first tour of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts since taking over as the institution’s chairman, President Donald Trump said he never liked “Hamilton” but that he expected other “Broadway hits,” including “Les Misérables,” to do “well” for the center.
“The thing that does well are Broadway hits,” Trump said during a press conference before meeting with the board, which now consists of more than 30 of his allies, including chief of staff Susie Wiles. Monday marks the first time Trump has convened the board since his February takeover of the center after ousting all board members appointed by former President Joe Biden and firing the center’s longtime president, Deborah F. Rutter.
Trump’s knock against Broadway superstar Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” comes after the mega-hit canceled next year’s run of shows at the center.
Miranda told The Times in a statement, “The Kennedy Center has long been an artistic center historically devoid of a political point of view, with programming agnostic to the policy shifts of the times. At its heart, ‘Hamilton’ celebrates American diversity.
The recent shift in the Kennedy Center’s ideology and board leadership has made it untenable for a production like ‘Hamilton’ to celebrate and be celebrated there today.”
Trump also lamented the physical state of the center, which broke ground in 1964 and opened to the public in 1971. The center, Trump said, was in “tremendous disrepair, as is a lot of the rest of our country — most of it because of bad management.” Trump said he was “disappointed,” but he and the board will “do what has to be done” when it comes to restoring the center. More here