I went to the Fourth of July at Trump’s MAGA-fied Kennedy Center

You'll be shocked to find out there were superior accomodations for the rich and connected

I didn’t want to leave my apartment on Friday.

Things were going well for me there. I woke up, as always, at unemployed o’clock, rolled over, washed my face, “brushed” my hair. I gave a podcast interview for about an hour, then my friend Nina came over. She was in an unusually chipper mood, Capitol Hill reporter and all, having just gotten her first full night’s sleep and day off since she started covering the “Big, Beautiful, Bane of my Existence” as she called it.

We set up on the roof of my building with a tub of watermelon (that I accidentally then kicked onto the floor, sorry), Owalas topped off with lemony electrolyte powder, then dug into several rounds of Bananagrams.

Life was good. Air conditioning was nearby. I really should have left the Fourth of July at that.

I did it for journalism, also spite.

I’d been following the Kennedy Center’s social media, where new leadership had been advertising it as a gathering point to watch the National Mall fireworks. “This year our celebration of America’s independence will be bigger and better than ever before,” Ric Grenell, a longtime Trump loyalist and the new executive director, was quoted in one Instagram post. The comments section was littered with clapbacks. “Independence Day has been cancelled this year,” one read. And another, “See you in 4 years, Kennedy Center 💙🌈”.

The new administration has moved to aggressively cleanse the nation’s premier cultural institution of any whiff of “wokeness”, with heads and financial consequences rolling just a few months in. In February, Trump fired several board members, including the longtime chair and billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein, who has given $120 million to the center. The president, Deborah Rutter, was also fired, with Grenell taking her place. About 40 staff have been fired or laid off, and 50 more have quit in the wake of the takeover. They promised a new era of stewardship, one cut from Trump’s “Golden Era of America” promises. Performances that did not fit with the fascist cultural revolution were canceled, including all World Pride events in June. It was an unprecedented move of political interference at an institution that past administrations have previously largely left alone.

Grenell, who is reportedly considering a run for the governorship in California, has said the new Kennedy Center is one “where the boss eschews partisan politics in favor of putting American culture, heritage, and excellence first.” HisJune 24 Instagram post featured a picture of him and a gang of staff in tuxedos and ballgowns. He promised to make the Kennedy Center “more transparent, and a place for everyone – not just the elite few.”

richardgrenell

A post shared by @richardgrenell

Ticket sales and subscriptions are down significantly. According to the Wall Street Journal, “For the first two weeks of sales for the coming season, theater subscription revenue, which includes the plays and musicals that perform on its biggest stages, is down 82% to $224,000 from $1.23 million over the same period last year. Other programming categories, including ballet and classical music, are also down by double digits.”

So the libs and the politicos and the normies and the retirees across the city have been devastated by the Kennedy Center’s deconstruction. Like everything else, it will undoubtedly only worsen and probably jeopardize its long-term future. I love going to the opera alone and hate that the bastards are now in charge of it. The Kennedy Center is the perfect place to have a think with Italian melodrama in the background. Given the city’s hatred for this administration and love for the Kennedy Center, given the comments section roasting Grenell, and the general ambivalence of the local community toward the Fourth this year, curiosity (and the insatiable desire for content) got me, and I went on down to the waterfront.

At the Kennedy Center, I found one Fourth of July for the plebes and a much better Fourth of July for rich and connected friends of the Trump administration.

When I hopped off the crosstown bus into the famous red carpeted entryway, I found security screenings set up at the back of the hall and well-dressed patriots milling about in the front. It’s not hard to clock a crowd of rich Trump supporters and I immediately sensed their presence – their skin is somehow both artificially taut and leathery at the same time, tinted a familiar shade of orange, the men with pastel golf shirts and belted khakis and women in neon cocktail dresses, baubles, and red bottom stilettos. There was also a suspiciously high incidence of very expensive-looking cowboy boots.

“Are you here for the event?” A Kennedy Center staffer asked me. I told her I was a journalist looking to cover Fourth of July programming. She tightened up and told me it was a private event, and that I should find my way back outside. When I asked her what the event was, she refused to tell me, which I found odd because it seemed from my research that the Kennedy Center roof was usually reserved for a fundraiser open to members on the Fourth of July. I asked her the same question several different ways until she got really annoyed with me, and I her, so I turned my ass around and went back outside.

Out front, I spoke to a heavily made-up woman in tall high heels and a sleeveless double-breasted bright red suit-vest-thing and matching flared trousers (The pants were great.) She had a slight accent and was pushing a baby in a stroller with airplane luggage tags still attached. She told me she was going to the event inside. I asked what it was, and she said she didn’t know (????) I asked her who had invited her, and she paused.

“I probably shouldn’t say, it was someone in the government.”

I spoke to at least five more staff members and security personnel, no one would tell me anything except one who said it was “for VIPs.” Salty that no one would tell me anything for what I believed was no good reason, I sat and watched black cars and cars with diplomatic plates pull up in quick succession while rationing what water was left in my Owala. No one seemed to notice me taking notes, my red linen Naomi Nomi dress gave a distinctly patriotic vibe.

black cars, normies to the right, our overlords, our overlords choice of culture, normies on the lawn, discount for KC patrons at DC MAGA hangout Butterworth's

I’m 99 percent certain this was not a fundraiser, though there is the outside possibility I’m wrong. Piecing the event together on Instagram after the fact, I found attendees included entry-level embassy staff, a reporter from the Daily Caller, a cohort of staffers from the Conservative Political Action Committee, several small-time Republican activists, a staffer for Republican Rep. Abe Hamadeh, and Chuck Grassley’s press secretary. None of these are particularly monied positions. Notorious right-wing troll and neo-Nazi ally Jack Posobiec was there with his family as well, as was the chief of staff of the Republican National Committee and Grenell himself.

Seemed like a nice party. There were rounds with patriotic table clothes, mini golf and balloon animals and face painting for the kids, burgers and drinks and tacos and a live band.

posobiec and his family, grenell in a sailor's outfit, free food and drink, fireworks, a bunless burger, lots of embassy staff attended

Meanwhile, in the village …

While the specials walked into the Kennedy Center dressed to the nines, sweaty red-faced peasants in star-spangled shorts and sparkler headbands headed to the right with beach chairs in tow, where the event for the public was set up.

I followed them over there and found a small crowd had gathered with picnic blankets and insulated lunch boxes full of snacks and coolers and hand fans. There were a few food trucks parked with people gathered around. The sun was intense but people seemed to be in a good, communal mood.

Do you ever come to the realization that people around are not thinking about what you’re thinking, and it would be anti-social to change the topic? No one in their right mind wants to talk to you about the budget and Trump’s weird obsession with the 2017 Kennedy Center Honorees, I thought to myself. These are normal people who, despite your best efforts, are momentarily happy in the sun and the grass and you’re about to ruin that for them. For their sake, go home and be peaceful. I did it anyway, but I tried to be quick about it.

I spoke with a few people, including Anna, 18, and Zane, 20, two community college students who had come up from Virginia to watch the fireworks. Zane recently arrived in the U.S. from Jerusalem, Palestine, and it was his first Fourth. “I like it here. It's very quiet. It's calm. But it's very individualistic, kind of like everyone with their own thing. I don't see a lot of unity.” They told me they’d been discussing this topic before I sat down.

Anna, a Salvadoran-American who said she’d seen a lot of division in the Latino community leading up to the 2024 election, told me “It’s fun to see fireworks, but with things going on, are they the best?” She mentioned her worries about people she knows getting kicked off of Medicaid after major cuts just passed Congress. “I do think there’s gonna be a big impact,” she said. Anna told me about a family friend who is very sick and will likely not seek treatment for fear of getting hit with insurmountable medical bills. She said that the issue of government support services has pit “Latinos against Latinos,” but “These are people that pay taxes as well. So, I don’t really know why there’s a stigma around it.”

They were there to enjoy Fourth of July traditions, Zane for the first time, but were also concerned for the future. “Things are clearly not going well here,” he said. We all laughed. “Clearly!” We could hear the DJ starting up on the roof.

Annyyyywayyyyy, here’s what I’m into

I took a Lime scooter back to Nina’s from the Kennedy Center. Dusk was settling in, the summer air was perfect, and all the consternation from the last several hours melted away. I thought back to the blissful Fourths of July I spent as a kid at Camp Seagull, not something that comes up for me often but fondly remembered, in Charlevoix, Michigan. I wondered what that kid would think of me now. When I checked the news later and saw that floods in Central Texas had ravaged Camp Mystic on the banks of the Guadalupe River, I was devastated. My heart is with those kids and their families.

• To help Texans deal with this catastrophe, check out this Texas Tribune guide to giving.

• I’ve been really into boy bands lately. BSB mostly. I hear pro-Palestine Irish rap trio Kneecap is playing DC on October 7th. Bold choice to say the least. If anyone wants to buy me tickets so I can write about it, feel free to do that.

• My birthday is coming up! Please consider pledging a subscription for when I turn on paid posts in the future, and sharing this Substack with your friends.

As always, thank you so much for reading and being here. Who’s your ideal Trump-era Kennedy Center act? I’d love to see a Deplorable Choir reunion.¹ Stay safe.

1. I have two braincells.