Ric Grenell, the recently installed interim president of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, lashed out at Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and producer Jeffrey Seller on Monday, accusing them of boycotting the institution and refusing to perform for Republicans.

In a statement posted to the Kennedy Center’s X account Monday, Grenell said he was “disappointed” to learn that Miranda and Seller “are working with Democratic Senators and the New York Times to boycott the Kennedy Center, refusing to perform for audience members who don’t share their personal politics, and cosplay [sic] as victims of intolerance.”

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“I cannot begin to understand what business it is of Mr. Seller or Mr. Miranda how audience members vote or how it could possibly be relevant to the sacred relationship between performers and ticket holders, but they’ve made it clear that they won’t perform for audiences that might contain Americans who disagree with them on matters irrelevant to the arts,” Grenell wrote.

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Contrary to Grenell’s statement, neither Miranda nor Seller have indicated that they would not perform for audiences whose politics differ from their own. In March, Seller canceled a planned 2026 run of Hamilton at the Kennedy Center, citing the president’s hostile takeover and politicization of the institution in February and the uncertainty that existing agreements and contracts would be honored under the new regime. In his March 5 statement, Seller specifically noted that “political disagreement and debate are vital expressions of democracy.”

As the Daily Beast notes, Grenell’s statement came the same day as an invite-only Pride concert produced by Seller and staged by Democratic Senators John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Brian Schatz (D-HI) at one of the Kennedy Center’s theaters. According to the outlet, Miranda does not seem to have been involved in the event in any way. While the New York Times reported on the concert Monday, the paper was also not involved in its production, as Grenell suggested.  

While Grenell claimed in his Monday statement that “No one has been cancelled by the Kennedy Center” and that “we welcome everyone who wants to celebrate the arts, including our compatriots on the other side of the political aisle,” under his leadership, several Pride events and performances have, in fact, been canceled.

According to the Times, Hickenlooper invited Seller to produce Monday’s concert, which Seller said was meant “to celebrate gay characters, gay culture, gay music and gay pride.”

“This is our way of reoccupying the Kennedy Center,” Seller told the paper. “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.”