Recently, Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha attended a concert at the Kennedy Center in D.C. When they sat down in their box seats overlooking the audience, they were loudly booed by the audience.
The audience was doubtless reacting to Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center, purging its leaders and replacing every Democrat on the bipartisan Board with a Republican. He named himself as chairman of the Board, thus ensuring that no artist would dare to insult him as others had done in the past. Trump complained about “woke” performances, but admitted he never attended the Kennedy Center. Several artists cancelled their performances, as did the celebrated multiracial Broadway show “Hamilton.”
Trump’s hand-picked acting Director of the Kennedy Center is Richard Grennell, who has no experience in the arts but served as Trump’s Ambassador to Germany.
When Grennell heard that VP Vance had been loudly booed, he issued a statement on Twitter.
Richard Grenell, whom Mr. Trump named as the center’s new president, posted on social media on Friday morning that the video showing Mr. Vance being booed “should challenge us all to commit to making the Kennedy Center a place where everyone is welcomed.”
“It troubles me to see that so many in the audience appear to be white and intolerant of diverse political views,” he wrote. “Diversity is our strength. We must do better. We must welcome EVERYONE. We will not allow the Kennedy Center to be an intolerant place.”
The Washington Post reported that Grennell sent an email to the Kennedy Center staff:
On Friday morning, Richard Grenell, an ally of President Donald Trump made interim president of the Kennedy Center by Trump’s new board of trustees, sent an email to the center’s staff, reviewed by The Washington Post, stating that he “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.”
“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,” Grenell wrote. “We clearly have work to do. And I hear your outrage.”
He cited the center’s diversity as a strength. “As President, I take diversity and inclusion very seriously,” he wrote. “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.
WHAT?
Doesn’t he know that Trump banned “diversity” and “inclusion”?
Doesn’t he know that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed all literature that said “Diversity is our strength”?
Why was Gremnell complaining about an audience in which “so many…appear to be white”? Many Black performers have cancelled their appearances at the Kennedy Center because of Trump’s unprecedented takeover and his harsh attacks on diversity and inclusion.
Reading this was a laugh-out-loud moment.

First, we weren’t supposed to believe our eyes about what they saw on January 6th, and now we are not supposed to believe our ears when we hear completely opposed versions of what the Trump administration wants.
I have today restarted my head-banging exercises. CBK
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Be gentle when banging your head
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Diane: Ha! But really, folks. Do you think it’s just that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, or do you think THEY think they can say whatever they want and because it really doesn’t matter whether it’s true or not? Boing, Boing, Boing. CBK
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I think Grennell went off script. They are dead serious about ending DEI
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Diane: Probably so–went off script. Ooops. He told the truth about what he thought was right and good. What a concept. CBK
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No matter how hard MAGA’s leaders keep lying, the truth slips out one way or another.
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Jon: Exactly that. Boing! boing! boing!
And Lloyd, yes, the truth has a way of doing that. CBK
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Cognitive dissonance, good old-fashioned hypocrisy or simply a lack of communication about what is on today’s hate menu?
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I certainly laughed out loud. I figured Richard Grennell wouldnt be managing the Kennedy Center too much longer, or would send a retraction.
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Hegseth: “Fit – not fat.”
USDA: No more healthy “Local Foods for Schools.”
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I guess I read it as plain old gaslighting … deflecting attention and pretending the boos had to do with Usha’s ethnicity … thereby condemning the audience.
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Beneath the many examples of pearl-clutching performance art always lies the supposition of the fascist’s omnipotence. The audience couldn’t ACTUALLY be showing displeasure at his job performance could they? The Traitor couldn’t ACTUALLY ever lose an election could he? There’s no POSSIBILITY the puppet could ever commit a crime is there? And for these beliefs to persist when mountains of evidence prove otherwise shows you’re dealing with a cult. MAGAs are ahistorical simpletons who are energized by your displeasure over their treasonous and unconstitutional dismantling of our government.
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the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing!
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