It was only a day after the board vote, headed by Richard Grenell, a dedicated Trump sycophant, that workers were busy adding the letters for “Donald J. Trump” above those on the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Trump claimed he was surprised by the gesture, which conflicted with the law naming the center after JFK and beyond the power of the board to change. Trump didn’t care. And the magical appearance of the letters the next day strongly suggests it was neither a surprise nor a product of the board’s vote. Letters don’t appear by magic, yet there they were.

Then came the reactions. First, Chuck Redd canceled his jazz Christmas concert.

A planned Christmas Eve jazz concert at the Kennedy Center, a holiday tradition dating back more than 20 years, has been canceled. The show’s host, musician Chuck Redd, says that he called off the performance in the wake of the White House announcing last week that President Donald Trump’s name would be added to the facility.

“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 The Associated Press in an email Wednesday. Redd, a drummer and vibraphone player who has toured with everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Ray Brown, has been presiding over holiday “Jazz Jams” at the Kennedy Center since 2006, succeeding bassist William “Keter” Betts.

Others had canceled performances after Trump’s election, such as Lin-Manuel Miranda’s production of “Hamilton,” but after the unlawful addition of Trump’s name, the cancelations picked up steam.

The Cookers did not give a reason for the decision in a statement on Monday that said, “Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice.”

But the band’s drummer, Billy Hart, told The New York Times that the center’s name change had “evidently” played a role. He acknowledged that the group was concerned about possible reprisals.

Doug Varone and Dancers, a New York dance company, also said on Monday that it was canceling two performances in April that had been intended to celebrate its 40th anniversary. Mr. Varone, the head of the company, said it would lose $40,000 by pulling out.

These performers were under contract, and may well have breached their contract by canceling performances. If so, they could be held liable for damages for their decision, not to mention any effort by AG Pam Bondi to prosecute them for domestic terrorism. But Kat Rosenfeld argued on the Twitters that there are broader social implications involved.

the point I’m always trying to make (and that people are always getting mad at me for lol): Trump will be gone in 3 years but the world we create in response to him will endure indefinitely so maybe we could just… calm down a little https://t.co/JoVpYePjV8

— Kat Rosenfield (@katrosenfield) December 29, 2025

What about the art? What about the people who purchased tickets to see the performances. But most of all, what about the Kennedy Center, highly likely to be returned to its statutory memorial name after Trump’s term with only the holes in the wall to remind people of the man who put his own name on the wall since no one else would? Trump will presumably be gone in three years, but will there still be a Kennedy Center?

as with the Resistance shenanigans and political purity testing that rose to dominance in our media and arts institutions circa 2019, the people engaged in this behavior seem not to have thought through its downstream effects on social trust even the tiniest bit

It may well be entirely understandable that people, and particularly performers, are outraged by Trump’s efforts to defile whatever he can by either destroying it or putting his name on its. It may well be understandable that these performers do not choose to endorse Trump’s efforts, and view their performance as making them acquiescent, if not complicit, in his actions. But are they also doing damage to the institution of the Kennedy Center that could spell its demise? Are they contributing to the eradication of performing arts in Washington all to make a point about Trump?

“We can no longer permit ourselves nor ask our audiences to step inside this once great institution.”

No matter how offensive Trump’s “shenanigans” may be, is it worth killing off the Kennedy Center to demonstrate their outrage? Is the death of the Kennedy Center worth it, or is the better response to keep the Kennedy Center alive so that this “great institution” will still be there after Trump is gone?

*Tuesday Talk rules apply.