A planned Christmas Eve jazz concert at the Trump Kennedy Center was canceled after the show’s woke host pulled out in protest of President Donald Trump.
Famed drummer and vibraphone player Chuck Redd has been presiding over holiday Jazz Jams at the Kennedy Center since 2006, succeeding bassist William Keter Betts.
But he canceled the annual concert, a holiday tradition dating back more than 20 years, this year after being ‘saddened’ by the performance hall’s rebrand.
‘When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert,’ Redd told AP in an email Wednesday.
As of last Friday, the performance center in DC‘s façade reads The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.
According to the White House, the president’s handpicked board approved the decision, which scholars have said violates the law.
Trump had been suggesting for months he was open to changing the center’s name.
‘I’ve been performing at the Kennedy Center since the beginning of my career and I was saddened to see this name change,’ Redd, who has toured with everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Ray Brown, added in statement to CNN.
The jazz singer Sharon Clark performed at the Christmas Eve Jazz Jam in 2024. Her views on the name change and this year’s cancelation are not known
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump attend the 48th annual Kennedy Center Honors in Washington DC on December 7
The Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to email seeking comment. The center’s website lists the show as canceled.
President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and Congress passed a law the following year naming the center as a living memorial to him.
The Kennedy Center’s name change was poorly received by many members of the Kennedy Family, including former President John F. Kennedy’s niece Kerry Kennedy, who pledged to take a ‘pickax’ to the letters forming Trump’s name on the building after he leaves office.
Former House historian Ray Smock is also among those who say any changes would have to be approved by Congress.
The law explicitly prohibits the board of trustees from making the center into a memorial to anyone else, and from putting another person’s name on the building’s exterior.
Trump last week told reporters he was ‘surprised’ the board voted to rename the center after him and that he was ‘honored’ by the decision.
But he hinted at the looming name change earlier this month when he referred to the performance arts venue as the Trump Kennedy Center.
Trump, a Republican, has been deeply involved with the center named for an iconic Democrat after mostly ignoring it during his first term.
Workers drop a tarp after adding the name Donald J. Trump to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC on December 19, 2025
President Trump (pictured with his wife First Lady Melania at the 48th Kennedy Center Honors on December 7) said he was ‘surprised’ the board voted to rename the center after him and that he was ‘honored’ by the decision
Delores King Williams performs alongside Redd, drummer Lenny Robinson, trumpeters Robert Redd and Tom Williams and bassist James King at the 20th annual All-Star Christmas Day Jazz Jam on December 25, 2018
He has forced out its leadership, overhauled the board while arranging for himself to head it, and personally hosted this year’s Kennedy Center honors, breaking a long tradition of presidents mostly serving as spectators.
The changes at the Kennedy Center are part of the president’s larger mission to fight ‘woke’ culture at federal cultural institutions.
The jazz musician is just one of numerous artists to call off Kennedy Center performances since Trump returned to office, including Issa Rae and Peter Wolf.
Lin-Manuel Miranda also canceled a planned production of Hamilton.
Redd’s cancellation comes after furious congresswoman who sits on the iconic cultural institution’s board sued the Center over the name change.
Representative Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and non-voting member of the Center’s board, filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration for renaming the building and claiming that the vote to do so was unanimous.
After the announcement of the name change last week, Beatty took to X to launch a complaint against the move, claiming that she was silenced and did not get a vote on the matter.
Richard Grenell, the Center’s President, responded to Beatty’s claims last week, writing on X that she is a ‘non-voting ex-officio member,’ before adding that ‘all ex-officio Members never get to vote.’
Michael Boulos and Tiffany Trump attend the Kennedy Center Honors on December 7, 2025
In the suit, Beatty alleges that only Congress can change the Center’s name, as it was intended to be a ‘living memorial’ to President John F. Kennedy after his assassination in 1963 and be a ‘crown jewel of the arts for all Americans, irrespective of party.’
Kennedy Center Vice President of Public Relations Roma Daravi told the Daily Mail that the action to rename the center is ‘in line with the precedent of the State Department adding President Trump’s name to the Institute of Peace. And the previous Administration renaming military bases.’
During an appearance on WMAL’s O’Connor and Company, Daravi noted that the ‘Kennedy Memorial is not impacted at all by this name addition,’ also stating that adding Trump’s name to the building gets back to the original bipartisan roots of the Center, as it was created by President Eisenhower and then dedicated to Kennedy after his death.
soure: daily mail
