Trump’s Kennedy Center Takeover Plunges Further Into Chaos |
A view of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which was recently renamed The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, DC, on December 29, 2025.Celal Gunes/Anadolu/Getty
More artists have canceled their performances at the Kennedy Center after its Trump-acolyte-dominated board’s recent vote to add the president’s name to the performing arts center earlier this month.
The latest includes The Cookers, a jazz ensemble, which called off their New Year’s Eve show on Monday.
The band did not explicitly mention the name change, but in a statement wrote, “Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice. Some of us have been making this music for many decades, and that history still shapes us.”
“We are not turning away from our audience, and do want to make sure that when we do return to the bandstand, the room is able to celebrate the........