Kennedy Center seeks $1m damages from musician who cancelled after Trump name added to building

The head of the Kennedy Center in Washington DC has demanded $1m (£740,000) in damages from a musician who cancelled a concert after President Donald Trump’s name was added to the venue.

Chuck Redd called off his Christmas Eve performance, which he has hosted since 2006, citing a vote by the board to rename the site the Trump Kennedy Center.

In his letter, Richard Grenell, said the cancellation was a “political stunt” and “has cost us considerably”. Redd did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shortly after taking office, Trump fired all the centre’s board members, and replaced them with allies, who then voted to make Trump chairman of the board.

Grenell, the Trump Kennedy Center president, wrote in his letter to Redd that his no-show “is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution”.

He added: “Your dismal ticket sales and lack of donor support, combined with your last-minute cancellation has cost us considerably.

“This is your official notice that we will seek $1 million in damages from you for this political stunt.”

Last week, the White House announced the centre’s board had voted unanimously to rename the cultural institution as The Donald J Trump and John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.

A day later, crews could be seen etching the president’s name on the building’s façade. Its website and social media accounts were also renamed.

The White House said the renaming effort was in recognition of Trump’s actions to renovate the building, but the move was criticised by Democrats, several artists and members of the Kennedy family.

“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, a drummer and vibrophone player, told the Associated Press news agency earlier this week.

Work on a national performing arts centre began in the 1950s and after Kennedy, the 35th president, was assassinated in 1963, Congress decided to turn it into a living memorial to him.

Some US lawmakers and legal scholars said that because the centre was named in a 1964 law, Congress should vote to make the name change official.

The threat of legal action against Redd comes after congresswoman Joyce Beatty, a Democrat from Ohio, filed a lawsuit seeking to remove Trump’s name from the centre.

Beatty is one of several lawmakers designated as members of the board by US law. She argued in her lawsuit that the renaming was illegal because changing the name requires “an act of Congress”.

The lawsuit says Beatty had called into the meeting about the name change but was muted when she tried to voice her opposition.