President Donald Trump announced Friday that interim Trump Kennedy Center director Richard Grenell is stepping down from his position.
Grenell made headlines last May when he fired The Western Journal’s founder, Floyd Brown, as vice president of development at the Center, apparently based on the Christian conservative’s past statements he had made about traditional marriage and homosexuality.
When Trump named Grenell interim director in February 2025, he posted on social media, “Ric shares my Vision for a GOLDEN AGE of American Arts and Culture, and will be overseeing the daily operations of the Center. NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA — ONLY THE BEST. RIC, WELCOME TO SHOW BUSINESS!” In other words, no more woke.”
Trump is chairman of the board of the Trump Kennedy Center.
I am pleased to announce that Ric Grenell will serve as the Interim Executive Director of The Kennedy Center. Ric shares my Vision for a GOLDEN AGE of American Arts and Culture, and will be overseeing the daily operations of the Center. NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN…
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) February 10, 2025
In a Friday Truth Social post, Trump commended Grenell for his work over the past year, while announcing that the current vice president of operations, Matt Floca, will be taking over as chief operating officer and executive director of the Trump Kennedy Center.
“Matt has helped us achieve tremendous progress in bringing the Center to the highest level of Excellence! A Complete Reconstruction of THE TRUMP KENNEDY CENTER will begin after the July 4th Celebration, with a scheduled Grand Re-Opening in approximately two years,” Trump wrote.
“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,” the president added.
In late May 2025, Brown posted on social media, “I was fired yesterday by @RichardGrenell from the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. One month ago, I was recruited to join the Kennedy Center as a Vice President.
“My firing came approximately two hours after @CNN sent an email asking me to comment on my past writings and statements about traditional marriage and homosexual influence in the @GOP,” he added.
Brown further noted, “Comments rooted in my personal Christian views, which I have made in the past, have no impact upon my work here at the Kennedy Center nor do they impinge on my interactions with colleagues who do incredible work for the patrons of the Center. As a Christian I am called to work with others of different beliefs and worldviews.”
I was fired yesterday by @RichardGrenell from the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. One month ago, I was recruited to join the Kennedy Center as a Vice President. My firing came approximately two hours after @CNN sent an email asking me to comment on my past…
— Floyd Brown (@floydbrown) May 29, 2025
Brown also pointed out that he refused to recant his past statements in order to keep his job.
“The only explanation is the one given to me at the time of my firing. ‘Floyd, you must recant your belief in traditional marriage and your past statements on the topic, or you will be fired.’ Needless to say, I refused to recant and was shown the door. My beliefs are much more common to Biblical Christianity,” Brown wrote. Grenell is also a professing Christian, while identifying as a homosexual and having a male partner.
The Bible identifies engaging in homosexual sex as sin in multiple passages, so Brown’s views are certainly mainstream Christian teaching.
In a separate social media post a week after his firing, Brown wrote that he’d been asked how he knew Grenell was responsible for his firing.
“The reason is simple; I was present in the office with my boss, Lisa Dale, when I saw Ric Grenell’s name appear on her phone. After the telephone call, she told me he demanded my firing. Lisa was adamant that she didn’t want to fire me and was forced to do it,” he wrote.
It has been one week since my firing as a Vice President of the Kennedy Center for the Preforming Arts for my belief in traditional marriage. During the week since my firing, @RichardGrenell keeps telling the media he doesn’t know me, hasn’t met me, and wasn’t involved in hiring,… pic.twitter.com/jZ4kn7yFda
— Floyd Brown (@floydbrown) June 5, 2025
Brown also contradicted the Trump Kennedy Center’s claim, as reported by CNN, that Grenell does not even know who Brown is, adding that they never even met.
Brown wrote that they met multiple times during Kari Lake’s campaign events in both 2022, when she ran for Arizona governor, and 2024, when she ran for U.S. Senate. Brown served as chairman of her Senate campaign.
The last year at the Trump Kennedy Center has been turbulent, with several acts pulling out in protest to Trump’s new role as chairman, NPR reported.
However, the facility has hosted some high-profile successful events such as the annual Kennedy Center Honors, which brought a record $23 million in contributions, doubling 2024’s total. Honorees included Sylvester Stallone, Gloria Gaynor, George Strait, Broadway star Michael Crawford, and the members of the rock band KISS.
Kelsey Grammer hosted the event, with other celebrity participants such as Kurt Russell, Miranda Lambert, Vince Gill, Garth Brooks, and the rock band Cheap Trick.
There have also been National Symphony Orchestra events and the premiere of first lady Melania Trump’s documentary, “Melania,” which brought out the stars of the Trump administration and beyond.
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