Donald Trump’s anti-woke overhaul of the Kennedy Center, which began in February with the ousting of top institution brass, reached a stunningly iron
Donald Trump’s anti-woke overhaul of the Kennedy Center, which began in February with the ousting of top institution brass, reached a stunningly ironic crescendo on Wednesday night. For the first time since his hostile takeover, Trump and first lady Melania attended a show: the opening-night performance of Les Misérables, entering the venue to a mix of boos and cheers from the crowd.
Based on Victor Hugo’s canonical 1862 novel, Les Misérables is a musical about disenfranchised people rising up against their government in 19th-century France. It revolves around lower-class characters who are shunned from society for stealing just to feed their families or having children outside of wedlock. In one song from the show, characters sing, mid-protest, “Now we pledge ourselves to hold this barricade.”
Trump’s presence at Les Mis came as he deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles to crack down on anti-deportation protests. In doing so, Trump has royally pissed off Democratic California governor Gavin Newsom, who wrote alongside news of Trump’s Les Mis appearance: “Someone explain the plot to him.”
VP JD Vance, who was booed alongside second lady Usha Vance while attending a symphony at the Kennedy Center in March, proudly touted his facetious misreading of the musical, writing on social media: “About to see Les Miserables with POTUS at the Kennedy Center. Me to Usha: so what’s this about? A barber who kills people? Usha; [hysterical laughter].” In a follow-up tweet explaining his wildly obvious joke, he added, “That’s apparently a different thing called Sweeney Todd.”
Trump allegedly knows a lot more about the megamusical, which, like most of his favorite pop-cultural touchstones, hails from the 1980s. When announcing his third presidential run in 2022, he walked onstage to the protest anthem “Do You Hear the People Sing?”—a song that the US Army Chorus also performed at the 2025 White House Governors Ball. Meanwhile, the Obamas once bonded over their distaste for the show.
Perhaps anticipating some empty chairs at empty tables during his upcoming military parade, Trump attempted to assert himself as master of the house at the Kennedy Center. Earlier this year, the organization’s longtime board chair, billionaire David Rubenstein, and president Deborah Rutter were replaced with appointees like Usha Vance, who was previously secretary of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra board, as well as Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Fox News’s Laura Ingraham and Maria Bartiromo.
Many of those MAGA-verse figures were in attendance at Wednesday night’s performance, in addition to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his actor wife Cheryl Hines, as well as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Caroline Wren, Corey Lewandowski, and Kellyanne Conway, according to Politico. Some gold-level donors reportedly paid $2 million to hear songs of revolution from VIP seats, in an attempt to raise funds. Kennedy Center ticket sales have reportedly nosedived this year.
Reactions to Trump’s first attendance at the Kennedy Center were mixed. At intermission, amid some booing, one woman seated in the orchestra section started yelling: “Felon, you’re a convicted felon,” before apparently being escorted out of the building, CNN reported. Other audience members blurted out, “We love you” and cheered for Trump, who apparently pumped his fist in the air three times.
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