Hundreds of drag performers, LGBTQ+ activists and their allies took to the streets last night in Washington D.C. to protest President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the institution widely regarded as the nation’s cultural center.

“He’s essentially installed himself as dictator of the arts,” one protester told CBS affiliate WUSA.

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Donald Trump names gay “special envoy” to head Kennedy Center to stop “DRAG SHOWS”
“NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA,” Trump wrote.

Last week, Trump told supporters he would fire Kennedy Center board members that don’t “share our vision for a Golden Age in arts and culture.” He removed 18 Democratic members on the historically bipartisan board and replaced them with MAGA loyalists.

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The loyalists include Richard Grenell, who was Trump’s ambassador to Germany and then Director of National Intelligence in the last, chaotic days of his first administration, making Grennel the first gay man to serve in a Cabinet-level position; Usha Vance, the second lady of the United States; Susie Wiles, Trump’s White House chief of staff; and Patricia Duggan, a rightwing philanthropist and top GOP donor.

On Wednesday, they voted Trump chairman of the board.

“NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA — ONLY THE BEST,” Trump posted to Truth Social with his announcement that Grennel would serve as the Kennedy Center’s “executive director,” a position created to enforce the new chairman’s “Golden Age in arts” dictate.

Trump’s seizure inspired multiple members of organizations associated with the Kennedy Center to cut ties.

Musician Ben Folds announced on Instagram he was resigning his post as artistic adviser to the National Symphony Orchestra, “given developments at the Kennedy Center.”

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Opera legend Renée Fleming left her role as artistic advisor at-large to the Kennedy Center, calling David Rubenstein, whom Trump replaced as chair, “the greatest patriot I know.”

Shonda Rhimes, the accomplished Hollywood writer, producer and television executive, resigned from the Kennedy Center board with a terse announcement to Deadline, while performers Issa Rae and Low Cut Connie have canceled events at the venue.

One of Grennel’s first acts as enforcer was canceling a concert with the National Symphony Orchestra associated with WorldPride, the biennial LGBTQ+ gathering slated for Washington in May. The show, titled “A Peacock Among Pigeons,” has been scrubbed from the Kennedy Center’s website and ticketing system.

Protests of Trump’s hostile takeover reached the streets Thursday night as hundreds of demonstrators marched from Washington Circle to the Kennedy Center.