President Donald Trump has removed Richard Grenell as head of the Kennedy Center, ending his tumultuous reign over the soon-to-be-renovated arts center.
The axing of Grenell, a 59-year-old who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany in Trump’s first administration, was announced in a Friday afternoon Truth Social post by Trump, who claimed Grenell had done an “excellent” job.
Grenell’s tenure has been marked by high-profile cancellations as Trump remakes the center in his own image—and even had it grossly named after himself via his board of sycophants, which includes Attorney General Pam Bondi and his chief of staff, Susie Wiles.
“Ric Grenell has done an excellent job in helping to coordinate various elements of the Center during the transition period, and I want to thank him for the outstanding work he has done,” Trump wrote.
Trump announced that Matt Floca, the vice president of facilities operations at the Kennedy Center, will succeed Grenell. He will oversee the center as it is closed for two years for Trump-approved renovations.
“As Vice President of Operations, Matt has helped us achieve tremendous progress in bringing the Center to the highest level of Excellence!” Trump wrote of Floca.
According to his Kennedy Center biography, Floca holds a Bachelor of Science in construction management from Louisiana State University. Before joining the center in January 2024, he held various positions for the D.C. government. His bio also states that he has “knowledge spans all facets of the real estate industry.”
An insider told CNN that Grenell has been described by Kennedy Center staff as “combative, confrontational, and headstrong.” Another noted that Grenell had no experience in the arts and ruled over the center “with a sledgehammer” and “campaign schticks.”
Grenell has melted down as cancellation after cancellation trickled in for the nation’s premiere arts center. Just last week, he raged that the San Francisco Ballet had pulled its five-day run in Washington scheduled for May.
“Professional artists should perform for everyone—not just for people they agree with politically,” he told The New York Times.
He has melted down even more dramatically on X for previous cancellations.
“You just made it political and caved to the woke mob who wants you to perform for only Lefties,” he wrote after Grammy-winning bluegrass performer Béla Fleck withdrew from a planned concert at the venue in January.
Just hours before Trump confirmed his departure on Truth Social, Grenell was praising the president’s plans for renovating the Kennedy Center on X. “Thanks to @realDonaldTrump we are going to close down and fix everything in 2 years,” Grenell wrote on Friday, shortly after berating a journalist on the platform.
Word of Grenell’s ousting comes on the same day Trump, 79, shared renderings of his costly renovation. Despite a price tag of $200 million (still less than the recently fired ICE Barbie Kristi Noem’s commercial budget), the renderings suggest the center’s appearance will not change much.
An insider at the Kennedy Center told the Daily Beast on Friday that the latest renderings are “disgusting.”
Trump said Friday that the Kennedy Center will be closed for two years “after the July 4th Celebration.”
