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Host calls off annual Christmas Eve Kennedy Center concert over Trump name change

December 26, 2025 | | Print Article

A Christmas Eve jazz concert at the Trump-Kennedy Center was called off in protest of the venue’s recent name change, ruining the experience for what had been a seasonal tradition for nearly two decades.

Chuck Redd has hosted the “Jazz Jams” since 2006, but instead of performing, the musician decided to stick it to the audience by refusing to show up after the president’s name was recently added to the facility.

“When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert,” Redd told the Associated Press in an email, explaining the rationale for screwing over concertgoers by putting his own personal politics over his obligation to show up.

After the board voted in favor of adding President Donald Trump’s name, workers quickly moved to update the front of the building, which now reads “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

So instead of holiday cheer, concertgoers were served up another leftist temper tantrum that was as sour as spoiled eggnog, with X users lighting Redd up like a Christmas tree.

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The silly snit may have felt good for Christmas-hating leftists, but it is little more than the usual Trump Derangement Syndrome with a holiday bow. The more serious haters are already moving to lawfare, the weapon of choice for Democrats.

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A Democrat state lawmaker from Ohio has filed a lawsuit alleging that the name change is a “flagrant violation” of the law and that it was done without congressional authorization.

“Congress intended the Center to be a living memorial to President Kennedy – and a crown jewel of the arts for all Americans, irrespective of party. Unless and until this Court intervenes, Defendants will continue to defy Congress and thwart the law for improper ends,” reads the complaint filed by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio trustee of the board and a member of the virulently anti-Trump Congressional Black Caucus.

“The Kennedy Center Board has no authority to actually rename the Kennedy Center in the absence of legislative action,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said in a statement after the name change was announced.

“I was surprised by it, and I was honored by it,” Trump said of his name being added to the building, which had fallen into steep disrepair before he took over.

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“We’re saving the building… That building was in such bad shape — both physically, financially, and in every other way… The Kennedy Center is really back strongly,” he added.

Chris Donaldson
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