Mar 14, 2026
3 min read
President Donald Trump is replacing Richard Grenell as head of the Kennedy Center, he announced Friday.
President Donald Trump will replace Richard Grenell as president of the Kennedy Center, he announced Friday.
Trump announced on Truth Social that Grenell would be replaced by Matt Floka, the Arts Center's current vice president of facilities operations.
The move comes as the arts and culture institution, which now bears Trump’s name on its facade, is expected to close for two years for renovations as the president seeks to remold it in his image.
Grenell's tenure as interim president of the Kennedy Center until February 2025 has been marred by high-profile performance cancellations, protests, declining ticket sales and financial difficulties as he tries to implement the arts center's presidential vision.
Despite past warmth between Trump and Grenell, a longtime loyalist who has served the president in different roles over two terms, the president was frustrated by several negative headlines about his art institution's renovation, multiple sources told CNN.
A source familiar with the view of the White House said that the president likes Grenell but feels that he is wrong when it comes to his leadership of the Kennedy Center, including his management of publicity.
Another White House official insisted that Grenell had not been fired, but that he had always intended to help during the transition period at the Kennedy Center and leave the role there.And a separate source said Grenell doesn't want to stay through a long-planned renovation of the facility.He plans to step down from the role in the coming weeks and finish his work with fundraisers.
While leading the Kennedy Center, Grenell often bucked trends in the art world, challenging convention and stretching decades-old rules. Critics say this created tensions and caused irreparable damage to the agency.
Some of those who worked with Grenell described him as aggressive, defiant and courageous.Sources close to the Kennedy Center lamented that Grenell had no experience or foundation in the art world and came with a "hammer" and a "campaign whip" that moved the institution in the wrong direction.
But others argued that he was the right person to carry out Trump's vision and that he had brought a "no-nonsense mentality" to his work and brought many new workers to the center.
A source close to the Kennedy Center said Trump has been "sick" in recent days.
"Rick has worked very hard to stay in Trump's good graces, but Trump is tired of being on the news every day and hearing how bad things are at the Kennedy Center and (how) Trump is killing it," the source said.
has reached out to Grenell for comment.
The President's "Swiss Army Knife".
From the start, Grunell was an unlikely choice to lead an arts institution, as his professional experience was mostly in foreign affairs.He served eight years at the State Department as a representative to the United Nations during the George W. Bush administration.There he posed a personal and public challenge to the organization he worked for when officials refused a request to list his partner as his wife in the United Nations Blue Book, a book that contains contact information for diplomats and other personnel.
After spending time in California during the Obama years and then returning to politics and public affairs, he became close to Trump, and has a close relationship with first lady Melania Trump, the sources said.
During Trump's first term, he served as the US ambassador to Germany and special envoy to Serbia and Kosovo, and in 2020 the president selected him as director of national intelligence (DNI), making him the first openly gay cabinet-level official.His three months have been controversial, with the dismissal of high officials, restructuring of some parts of ODNI, deep relations with supervisors in Congress and the declassification of documents from the Obama administration fueled the conspiracy theory "Obamagate".But Trump commented at the end of Grenell: "I think you're going to be the greatest 'act' of all time, in any position."
In 2024, Trump appointed him special presidential envoy for special missions, a position he still holds despite being at the Kennedy Center.
A source who has worked with Grenell in the past said Trump trusted Grenell "implicitly" and made him interim chairman of the Kennedy Center because of his experience handling high-level diplomacy.
"The president almost used him as a Swiss army knife," the person said."Whenever there's a problem he doesn't quite understand or he needs someone to creatively figure out how to solve it, he chooses Rick."
Incomplete fit
But veterans of the Kennedy Center and arts administration are skeptical of his ability to lead the institution due to his lack of art knowledge or experience."One of my first questions to him was to ask him about his relationship with the performing arts, what he took on this role, what it meant to him and how the Kennedy Center came together and who he was in his identity," said a person close to the Kennedy Center, who met Grnell early in his dance. "One of the first things he said when I asked him was that he said, 'I love celebrities.'"
Grenell emphasized his time singing in a choir as a boy, that his partner was a former Broadway actor, his belief in art education, and his love of art as a way to develop his skills.
But many people familiar with the Kennedy Center management said Grenell never showed much interest or took the time to understand what it took to run it, and he refused offers to educate or help him while he was there.
"He doesn't want to know what he can do and what he can't do -- he just wants to do what he wants," said a person close to Grenell at the Kennedy Center.
A few months into his new job, Grenell came up with an unorthodox fundraising suggestion: auction off the duties of conducting the National Anthem for the National Symphony Orchestra.
The idea is simple - anyone who donates $50,000 gets a chance to pick up the plinth and stand on stage, achieving the honor of leading the symphony for one song.
Although the proposal was not implemented - and it is not clear how important - the only proposal caused concern and embarrassment in the office and the musicians.
But he also managed to articulate a clear, if divisive, agenda.
"You can't have programming that isn't awake or popular," Grenell said in a recent PBS interview, adding, "We can't have unpopular programming. It doesn't pay the bills."
He said his mission is to innovate programming as part of a holistic approach to the institution's finances, from family-friendly programming.At the suggestion of second wife Usha Vance, he came up with "Dogman: The Musical," based on the popular children's graphic novel.
"It's not just an art, a left-wing institution, but all voices can come here and be a part of it," Grenell told Politico."For a long time, conservatives didn't feel welcome here."
Grenell, like Trump, has sought to capitalize on the center's pizzazz and glamour.
Last year, the center was used for the famous FIFA World Cup event, the premiere of Melania's documentary and Charlie Kirk's memorial.
For the first Kennedy Center honor, Grenell wanted Dolly Parton to perform, a source close to the Kennedy Center told CNN.
Barton declined the invitation, and Trump continued to host the show.
Pause?
Despite all this, sources said that Grenell did not spend much time at the Kennedy Center, often working from his home in California.When he was at the Kennedy Center, he was "secretive" and "arrogant," critics said.A full staff meeting has never been held, and a source close to the Kennedy Center said that in the year since he took office, many employees have not met him.
Some believed that Grenell didn't really want the job and was just biding his time to wait for something better to happen in the Trump administration.
Grinnell himself has told people he's there "very short-term" and hasn't shied away from telling people he thinks he's running for the job he's always wanted — secretary of state, multiple sources told CNN.
"He went on to say that he agreed to take over the role of the Kennedy Center because he assumed that he would quickly take over the role of the state, so it was a matter of time," said the Kennedy Center expert."He felt like he was getting lazy seconds at the Kennedy Center."
Next chapter
Grenell's departure comes amid turmoil and ongoing challenges.
Several sources said attendance at the Kennedy Center was so low that they had to "paper the house" -- a theatrical term used to fill seats -- for months, sometimes by offering free tickets to federal employees to make the show appear more full than selling tickets.
Critics of the administration have argued that much of this was driven by the Trump administration's attempt to entrench the traditionally partisan institution in politics, after Trump fired the board, replaced it with handpicked loyalists, installed himself as chairman and changed its name to the Trump-Kennedy Center — a change that is being challenged in court.
"The challenge is to find artists who will work with us, not because they are Republicans or Democrats, but more because they are concerned that if they do a concert at the Kennedy Center they will be labeled as supporting an administration that is not so friendly to the arts," said a source close to the Kennedy Center.
But Grenell hasn't done enough to solve the problem, critics say."They refuse to connect the poor attendance numbers to the administration," the Kennedy Center said of Grenell and his team.
A source close to Grinnell said: "Rick is very loyal to the people he works with and he's willing to put his head through the wall to get it done or do something for them. So if the president has a mission - he's very loyal, he'll do whatever it takes to get it done."
The move to close for renovation was seen by many as an attempt to save face amid these challenges.One of the sources said, "Every day there is another negative thing that hits the Kennedy Center, and I think they felt that closing the center was really the only way to stop the bleeding."
In his Truth Social post on Friday, Trump wrote: "Rick Grenell has done an amazing job helping coordinate the various elements of the Center during the transition period, and I want to thank him for the amazing work he has done. The Trump Kennedy Center, when completed, will be the best facility of its kind anywhere in the world!"
This story and headline have been updated as more details become available.
