Trump's Yip-Yap Dog Ric Grenell Gonna Put Kennedy Center IN JAIL
Donald Trump will have his vengeance on the arts!
One thing about Trump 2.0, there’s fewer characters to have to keep track of, because just a handful of people are doing all the jobs.
We’ve got two-jobs Todd and Russell, three-jobs Ed and Jamieson, and four-jobs Rubio, and spicing up that bowl of ranch dip, two-jobs Ric Grenell, who Donald Trump now has simultaneously trying to negotiate Americans out of Venezuelan prison and pulling off a culture-cancelling hostile takeover at the Kennedy Center for The Performing Arts.
And now Ric is already out here yip-yapping that they have found CRIMES there (at the Kennedy Center, not in Venezuelan prison), announcing at a dinner Monday night for Kennedy Center board members and hangers-on that there was “$26 million in phantom revenue, fake revenue” in the Kennedy Center’s books. “It’s criminal,” he said. “We’re going to refer this to the US attorney’s office here. We're lucky enough to have the attorney general on the board of the Kennedy Center who heard all the details. Today she heard the details, and this is unacceptable in America to have a fake revenue of $26 million fraud on previous donors.”
Oh yeah, we almost forgot Pam Jo Bondi has (at least) a third job too, serving on the Kennedy Center Board when she isn’t being attorney general or weaponizing the law and shame with Ed Martin over at the Weaponization Working Group, official keepers of the Trump enemies list.
Noted the New York Times, “It was not immediately clear what officials thought might be criminal, or why they thought it merited the attention of federal investigators.” Something something deferred revenue that dumdums who know nothing about running a nonprofit don’t understand.
Never mind, the important thing is that the Kennedy Center hurt the feelings of the world’s most sensitive and dramatic diva long ago, and he vowed to take his vengeance, and stand on the bones of his enemies while doing that double-handjob dance to “Memory” from Cats.
And of course, fascists always hate artistic expression, unless it is a baker refusing to make a gay wedding cake.
Before Ric made this announcement Monday night, though, Trump got up and treated the Board to a half-hour performance that included his hit song, STOLLEN ELECTION.
“And then they rigged the election, and then I said, ‘You know what I’ll do? I’ll run again and I’ll shove it up their ass.”
Please, grandpa, we just ate dinner!
Then after like 20 minutes of bitching about Democrats he finally got around to ranting specifically to the reason he was there:
To announce that in addition to “Lay Miz,” he will also bring back The Phantom of the Opera, with its wholesome hero, a disfigured basement-dweller who stalks women. Trump looooves The Phantom of the Opera and its Andrew Lloyd Webber synth-organs, because as it’s often been noted, his taste froze in 1989. Some People Have Been Saying that playing The Phantom of the Opera is one of the few ways to soothe an overheated Trump.
Not to my taste, and that is okay, not all art is for everybody. It is not supposed to be, it is supposed to speak to everyone a little bit differently, that is the point! Unless you’re a Republican, of course.
He said some blah blah blah DEI:
The programming was out of control with rampant political propaganda, DEI, and inappropriate shows. They had dance parties for quote ‘queer and trans youth.’ And I guess that’s all right for certain people.… But that wasn’t working out too well.
And yet, appearing at the MAGA Kennedy Center will be Mrs. Doubtfire, Chicago, and Spamalot, which all have drag parts. Lez Miz also seems pretty political, too, and not in a “Let’s celebrate the fascist takeover” kind of way? Go figure. (Donald Trump does not understand the plot of Les Misérables or any other musical.)
The Kennedy Center has been on Trump’s retribution list since at least 2017, after Kennedy Center Honors awardees Norman Lear and dancer Carmen de Lavallade threatened to boycott if Trump attended, in response to his “both sides”-ing about Charlottesville, and Trump skipped the event, citing the “political distraction,” AKA fear of a chorus of lusty BOOS. Like the ones JD Vance was to get there later!
And then there’s the former chairman of the Board of Trustees David Rubenstein, who Joseph Robinette Biden gave a Freedom Award for being one of the people who chafed Trump’s hemorrhoids the most, a list that included Killary, Bono, and even (((George Soros))) himself.
Rubenstein is a wealthy and generous lefty who started out his career as deputy domestic policy assistant to President Jimmy Carter, then went on to cofound and be co-chairman of the Carlyle Group, a private equity investment firm that manages more than $450 billion in assets. He’s signed the giving pledge, and is donating his wealth to stuff like art, museums, and preserving historical things in DC, and gave $111 million of his personal money to the Kennedy Center, making him its largest donor.
And as you’ll recall, Trump forcibly ousted chairman Rubenstein and all the Democrats on the Board of Trustees, and made himself the chair, then made a junk drawer of Board of Trustee appointments like caddy-cum-couper Dan Scavino, Usha Vance, Susie Wiles, the wife of Florida waste-management kingpin Anthony Lomangino, former Fox News producer Pamela Gross, and Mar-a-Lago DJ Sergio Gor.
And now, not content to take over, book non-union shows, and replace Alvin Ailey with more ballet, so much ballet, American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet and the Stuttgart Ballet, we guess retribution is coming.
Intriguing character, that Ric Grenell. During Trump’s last campaign, he was the only person who was able to lure Melania out of her gazillion-dollar closet to come wheedle money at his Log Cabin Republican lunch, which was her only campaign appearance other than the convention. (Where IS Melania, anyway? Is she even in DC?)
It’s all part of a war on the arts, and, well, war on everybody! Which has always been part of the right-wing wish list. Trump’s 2026 budget takes it farther than ever, calling for the elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities, and dozens of organizations have been notified that grants have been rejected or rescinded. Moreover, he is demanding a DEI purge of all institutions. What will be left of our arts institutions, museums libraries, universities, etc., in the future remains to be seen.
But if it trends the way it’s been going so far, the future will involve a lot of Andrew Lloyd Webber, lots of gaudy depictions of Trump (dramatically artistically rendered bloody ear optional), and heavy-handed application of gold spray paint.
In hospital. Nice people trying to figure out how and why my body has tried to kill me
"In the new version of "The Sound of Music" the Trapp family will be lined up against a wall and shot. Then we will, "solve" a problem like Maria."