Donald Trump‘s fight to reshape the Kennedy Center has delivered another expensive setback.
Dozens of performers, musicians and production companies have canceled or withdrawn from scheduled appearances after Trump’s leadership changes in 2025.
What began with one performer walking away became another headache for an institution already reeling from months of upheaval.
A jazz musician wants nothing to do with the controversy.
The center accused Chuck Redd of breaching a contract and threatened to sue for $1 million in damages. But there’s one problem.
Redd never signed that contract.
He reportedly backed out of a $6,500 Christmas Eve performance.
Now the tables have turned. D.C. Superior Court Judge Tanya Jones Bosier ordered the Kennedy Center to pay Redd $252,479.70 for the attorneys’ fees and costs he racked up defending himself against the failed lawsuit.
The Aug. 11 ruling gives the center 45 days to pay nearly all of the roughly $258,000 Redd requested.
The costly dispute grew out of the turmoil surrounding Trump’s overhaul of the Kennedy Center’s leadership.
Redd, a jazz vibraphonist and drummer, was the featured performer for the institution’s free Christmas Eve Jazz Jam every year since 2006. But in December 2025, after the board voted to add Trump’s name to the institution, Redd pulled out of the Dec. 24 show.
He also publicly explained why.
In an email to The Associated Press, “When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert.”
In a new order issued on Monday, DC Superior Court Judge Tanya Jones Bosier ordered the Kennedy Center to pay $252,000 in legal fees and costs to lawyers for Chuck Redd, who for years had played at the center’s annual Christmas Eve concert. https://t.co/XvxaL16Bsq pic.twitter.com/MGLzUXxI3e
— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) August 11, 2026
According to the Daily Beast, that decision did not sit well with Kennedy Center leadership. Then-president Richard Grenell warned Redd that the center would pursue $1 million in damages, accusing him of pulling a “political stunt.”
The institution followed up by filing a breach-of-contract lawsuit in March.
Its argument was unusual. Kennedy Center lawyers maintained that Redd had effectively agreed to the $6,500 performance agreement even though he never signed it. They also accused Redd of violating a morals clause by publicly explaining his withdrawal.
Judge Bosier dismissed the lawsuit in June, insisting she could not find a “valid breach-of-contract” claim, adding, “There’s no dispute that he did not sign the 2025 agreement.”
Bosier also granted Redd’s special motion under Washington, D.C.’s Anti-SLAPP Act, which protects people from lawsuits used to intimidate or silence speech on matters of public interest.
That law entitled Redd to recover roughly $258,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs for defending himself.
Kennedy Center lawyers called the request “nothing short of astonishing” and argued it was disproportionate to the case. Bosier reviewed the billing records, removed hours she considered duplicative or unnecessary, and still landed at $252,479.70.
Many on social media reveled in the reversal.
“Of course the musician is owed,” one person wrote. Another said, “Trump should pay all the performers who backed out!”
Others thought the Kennedy Center should keep fighting.
“Appeal. He broke a contract. Why would the center, AKA tax payer, pay for a performer that refused to perform?” one person argued. “All he’s got to do is take down the tarps & people would move on. The problem is donny’s UNABLE to move on & he’ll rage about it,” another said.
One person had a more pressing question: “When is the sheet covering on the front of the Kennedy Center being removed? A lot of tourists travel through DC and it creates an eyesore.”
The ruling comes as the Kennedy Center remains embroiled in separate controversy surrounding Trump’s efforts to rename the Washington landmark.
After Trump removed board members and installed allies, the new board elected him chairman and later voted to add his name to the institution.
A federal judge ruled that Congress had authority over the center’s name and ordered Trump’s name removed from the building and its branding.
Workers stripped the lettering from the facade, but the tarps and scaffolding remained.
Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio took issue with the Kennedy Center’s continued use of the tarps in a June 19 court filing. Her attorneys characterized the coverings as “semi-permanent.”
An ugly tarp won’t make us forget what Trump did.
— Rep. Joyce Beatty (@RepBeatty) June 25, 2026
Take it down, and let Americans enjoy The Kennedy Center again. pic.twitter.com/sdQF6XYnCa
They argued the tarps could make it harder to determine whether Kennedy Center leaders had followed the court’s order.
Judge Christopher Cooper has given officials until Aug. 20 to explain why the coverings are still there.
The turmoil has spread inside as well. Officials recently paused the Kennedy Center’s free public tours, interrupting a 50-year tradition, following criticism from 87-year-old longtime volunteer Sandy Weiswasser.
“This place used to be really thriving and busy and crowded,” she said. “Now it’s a black hole.”
Kennedy Center leadership threatened a musician with $1 million. They sued him over a contract he never signed. They lost.
Redd walked away owing nothing. The Kennedy Center owes him $252,479.70.
