Trump Loyalists Seething After 'Hamilton' Cancels Kennedy Center Run
The creators of Hamilton refuse to let their hit musical be performed next year at the Kennedy Center, where a now-canceled eight-week run was slated to help celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence—and this snub has MAGA acolytes seeing red.
President Donald Trump purged the board of the performing arts center in February and has since been made chairman, which caused an exodus of board members and performers.
“This latest action by Trump means it’s not the Kennedy Center as we knew it,” show creator Lin-Manuel Miranda said in a joint interview via The New York Times with lead producer Jeffrey Seller. “The Kennedy Center was not created in this spirit, and we’re not going to be a part of it while it is the Trump Kennedy Center. We’re just not going to be part of it."
And while Seller pointed out in a separate statement that their decision had to do with the “partisan policies of the Kennedy Center” and not with the Trump administration itself, the president’s loyalists aren’t very happy.
"Let's be clear on the facts," Richard Grenell, a Trump administration diplomat, said in a post via X. "Seller and Lin Manuel first went to the New York Times before they came to the Kennedy Center with their announcement that they can’t be in the same room with Republicans. This is a publicity stunt that will backfire."
Grenell—who recently campaigned on behalf of accused sex traffickers Andrew and Tristan Tate—then argued that arts are for both sides of the aisle and "not just for the people who Lin likes and agrees with."
"The American people need to know that Lin-Manuel is intolerant of people who don’t agree with him politically. It’s clear he and Sellers don’t want Republicans going to their shows," he added.
Grenell’s comments come at an interesting time, given that Miranda and Seller pulled the show partly because of Trump’s sudden ousting of Democrats from the previously bipartisan board at the Kennedy Center.
“Our cancellation is also a business decision," Seller wrote in a statement posted to Instagram. "'Hamilton' is a large and global production, and it would simply be financially and personally devastating to the hundreds of employees of 'Hamilton' if the new leadership of the Kennedy Center suddenly canceled or re-negotiated our engagement."
He added, "The actions of the new Chairman of the Board in recent weeks demonstrate that contracts and previous agreements simply cannot be trusted."
It’s likely Seller was referring to Trump’s firing of Deborah Rutter, the center’s longtime president. Trump also fired multiple board members, replacing them with his own supporters.
"At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN," Trump wrote via Truth Social in February.
"Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth—THIS WILL STOP. The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation,” Trump added, though he’s admitted to never having seen a Kennedy Center show.
As Trump has brought his loyalists, those on the other side of the aisle have made their exit.
Singer-songwriter Ben Folds resigned from his role as artistic advisor to the center’s National Symphony Orchestra, as did TV legend Shonda Rhimes as a board member.
Hamilton has a history of butting heads with the Trump administration, with cast members personally pleading to former Vice President Mike Pence onstage in mid-November 2016 to do right by the American people.
“We, sir—we—are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights,” actor Brandon Victor Dixon, playing Vice President Aaron Burr, said to Pence from the stage. “We truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us.”
While Hamilton won’t be gracing the stage and several other performers have canceled in protest, most of the Kennedy Center’s schedule appears to remain intact.
One other play, The Story of a Rose, however, relocated to Northern Virginia. The World War-I themed concert was said to have been moved due to seating capacity, per the New York Times.
However, one performer later told the outlet, “I’m glad at how it turned out. I wanted to do a show that everyone could attend—left, right, and center.”
Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.
RFK Jr. Campaign Director Reveals Her True Allegiance Is To Trump
Angela Stanton King, a far-right commentator working as a director for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign, said on a conspiratorial podcast last month that she loves Trump and that Kennedy is “another option” because her “fear is that they're going to stop at nothing to keep Trump from winning.”
She also said that she's working to take away votes from President Joe Biden and “if Trump or Kennedy gets it, I don't lose either way.”
Stanton King’s remarks resemble those of then-Kennedy official Rita Palma, who argued that the independent candidate’s presence on the New York ballot would help Trump defeat Biden, which she said was her “No. 1 priority.” (Palma was later fired.)
Kennedy has frequently attempted to appeal to right-wing audiences. He has also promoted numerous conspiracy theories as a commentator and has populated his campaign with conspiracy theorists.
Stanton King fits the Kennedy campaign's attempts to cater to right-wing media audiences. She is a far-right speaker, author, and guest on right-wing programming. She has claimed that the election was stolen from Trump, promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory, and made bigoted remarks about LGBTQ people.
She works as the Black voter engagement director for Kennedy and has participated in events and door knocking with him. He also recorded a song with her. This past weekend, Stanton King appeared at a campaign event with Kennedy’s running mate Nicole Shanahan.
Stanton King has been a strong supporter of Trump, who pardoned her in 2020 for a 2004 car theft sentence. In 2021, for instance, she said: “Trump can’t be President forever and I know that. But he’s the only one bold enough to fight these evil Demonic Satanic forces from the pits of HELL and I’m standing with him.”
Stanton King is still praising the former president, including while doing surrogate work for Kennedy on the April 20, 2024, edition of Nino’s Corner. That show is hosted by David “Niño” Rodriguez, a far-right podcaster who has said that Biden “stole the election”; 9/11 “was an inside job”; and COVID-19 “was a hoax and vaccines would kill u.” He has frequently promoted QAnon, including offering programming that analyzes “Q drops” and “Q posts.”
During the start of his interview with Stanton King, Rodriguez said: “I will say, I'm one foot in, one foot out with RFK. I'm a Trump supporter. Everybody knows that.” Stanton King replied: “Me too.” She later said that she’s “in a pickle here because I love” Trump and Kennedy and said:
ANGELA STANTON KING: RFK is liked by a lot of people. Like, we love Trump, but we know that RFK is not afraid to stand up to the establishment either. And I think that's what many of us respect about RFK. And for me personally, I made this decision because I was tired of being on one side where all we're doing is constantly fighting, and I was tired of not being able to work with certain people in my community because I was being labeled as a Trump supporter. And I just honestly believe that in order for us to come together that we do have to stop fighting.
She later stated that part of her efforts is to take away votes from Biden:
DAVID RODRIGUEZ: Throughout history, right, it's shown that third-party candidates kind of siphon votes from one or the other. And it looks like in this instance with RFK, he's going to probably take a lot of the votes away from Biden. Correct? I mean, that's what you're looking [inaudible]--?
STANTON KING: Well, yeah, that's true because he, and not to cut you off, but for my community — and you know how it is, you know how the media has created this stereotype that Trump and the Republicans are all racists — so for people in my community that aren't necessarily comfortable with coming over to the Republican Party, this provides a space for them. And to me, I'm like, listen, we've got to get away from the Democrats. So you guys have two options, right? If you don't want to vote for Trump, then Kennedy is a much better option than Joe Biden. And for me, shifting my community is very important. And I think that the independent space provides a safety net for those that are just not comfortable with the Republican Party but want to step away from the Democrats.
Stanton King continued offering Trump-friendly rhetoric during the interview (“I love Trump”), including stating that she loves Trump and views RFK Jr. as “another option” because she fears that “they're going to stop at nothing to keep Trump from winning”:
STANTON KING: My fear is that they're going to stop at nothing to keep Trump from winning. And I don't want to just give it over to Joe Biden. If for some reason we see another 2020, we need to have another option. And I think that RFK may be that. So that's kind of like where I'm at. I love Trump, my Republican friends that have supported me so much, I love them too. But even sometimes when it comes to the Republican Party, we've seen where the Republican Party didn't even stand behind Trump. Like, they let them get indicted four times. We saw what Mike Pence did with the vote. You know what I'm saying? So, I think it's time for us all to put people over party.
She later said that while campaigning with Trump she saw him draw vastly bigger crowds than Biden, asking, “How in the world was Joe Biden able to win or steal or whatever an election from Trump?”
She also suggested that she'd be happy if either Trump or Kennedy wins the election, stating: “If Trump or Kennedy gets it, I don't lose either way.”
STANTON KING: I love them both very dearly. A Trump-Kennedy ticket would mean the world to me because they're both guys that have shown me that not only do they care for me, but they care for my community. So for me, it's the winning ticket. Like I don't lose either way, right? If Trump or Kennedy gets it, I don't lose either way. But for both of them to get in, to me that would be a dream come true. And I don't know what those guys are doing. Trump hasn't picked a VP yet, and I'm thinking like Trump still may want to — if Trump got in and Kennedy didn’t, Trump still may want to pull Kennedy and make him, you know, the director of health administration. There are just so many options here. But I don't think that the Kennedy campaign and the Trump campaign are enemies.
Stanton King later portrayed the 2024 election as “us against the Democrats, either way it goes. It's the Republicans and independents against the Democrat Party. And we've gotta all unite.”
Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.