The Kennedy Center’s gay Trump-appointed interim President Richard Grenell recently defended the elimination of more than $2.5 million worth of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs at the historic arts center.

“What the heck is the Kennedy Center doing funding a group called ‘Social Impact’ when we have $0 in the bank and $0 in reserve?” Grenell told the conservative outlet, Washington Reporter.

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The mission of the social impact team was to expand the Kennedy Center’s reach to more diverse audiences as well as to use art to “advance justice and equity.”

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Marc Bamuthi Joseph, the team’s artistic director, who lost his job to the cuts, told The Washington Post: “Our work in Social Impact was to widen our cultural radius and to imagine that inspiration itself was a constitutional right afforded to ALL of this nation’s people.” The already small team reportedly lost at least five members after Trump’s takeover.

Grenell said, “We had spent way too much on programming that doesn’t bring in any revenue. And while I’m all for arts education, we can’t go into debt to do arts education; my solution is to bring in common sense programming that brings in enough money to use that money for niche programming in the future.”

He claimed that whether programming is “far-left or far-right or niche, fringe programming” he won’t fund it “if it doesn’t sell enough tickets,” unless there is significantly more money in the bank.

“I’m all for challenging the status quo and finding ways to educate people on fringe programming,” he said. “I actually am somebody who enjoys being challenged by art. I collect art that’s not always for the masses… But my my job as the leader is to make sure that the Kennedy Center has a fiscal sound policy, and when you look across the board at the executive pay and the decisions on funding and building operations, I think it’s actually criminal for leadership to spend so wildly while asking the public to pay for programming.”

The Reporter detailed some of the programs that have been cut, including the “Culture Caucus,” which partnered with an indigenous-led nonprofit called Crushing Colonialism.

“The Kennedy Center’s decision to cut ties with programs that support Crushing Colonialism isn’t a surprise, given the group’s public condemnations of ‘Trump’s fascist agenda,'” the Reporter wrote, implying that the group was probably cut because it disagreed with Trump.

The group’s event, “Decolonized Beatz Indigenous World Pride 2025,” is set to take place in May and June, but the organization refused to eliminate drag queens, trans, and two-spirit people from its lineup. As such, the Kennedy Center withdrew its support that the group said was vital to making it a “fully accessible, inclusive, and free event.”

Grenell became the first out gay U.S. cabinet official when he served as acting director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term. After Trump announced that he would fire members of the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees and install himself as chairman – citing the center’s recent drag programming – he named Grenell as the board’s interim head. Grenell is also serving in the newly created role of “Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions,” a diplomatic position meant to assist with challenging foreign policy matters.

After Trump took over, the Kennedy Center began quietly canceling LGBTQ+ programming, including a planned Pride performance by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington DC and a touring production of Finn, a children’s musical commissioned by the center about a shark who “wants to let out his inner fish.”

Earlier this month, Grenell suddenly voiced concern about diversity and inclusion at the performance venue when it came to a cisgender, heterosexual white male Republican who was not made to feel welcome by other attendees.

After Vice President J.D. Vance and his wife Usha were booed by the crowd while attending an event at the venue, Grenell reportedly emailed the staff to express his anger about the situation.

“I received several messages from Kennedy Center staffers sharing their embarrassment over more than a few Symphony patrons loudly booing the Vice President and his wife last night,” he wrote.

“As the premier arts organization in the United States of America, we must work to make the Kennedy Center a place where everyone is welcomed. We clearly have work to do,” he added. “And I hear your outrage.”

He went on to suggest the audience did not follow good diversity and inclusion practices by booing the vice president.

“I take diversity and inclusion very seriously,” he said. “I have met with many of you, and I love that we are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, agnostic, gay, straight, Black, white, Hispanic, and absolutely different.”

“Intolerance towards people who are politically different is just as unacceptable as intolerance in other areas,” he wrote. “Everyone is welcome at the Kennedy Center.”

On X, Grenell posted a video of Vance being booed and wrote it “should challenge us all to commit to making the Kennedy Center a place where everyone is welcomed.”

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