The head of the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC has demanded $1m in damages from a musician who cancelled a concert after US President Donald Trump’s name was added to the venue.
Chuck Redd called off his Christmas Eve performance, which he has hosted annually since 2006, citing a vote by the board to rename the site the Trump Kennedy Centre.
The centre’s president Richard Grenell wrote in a letter that 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 several of the board members and replaced them with allies, who then voted to make Trump chairman of the board.
Grenell wrote in his letter to Redd that his no-show was “classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution”. “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 $1m 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 Centre for the Performing Arts.
A day later, crews could be seen etching the president’s name onto the building’s façade. Its website and some 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.
Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, a Democrat from Ohio, recently filed a lawsuit seeking to remove Trump’s name from the centre. She argued in her lawsuit that, because the centre was named in a 1964 law, changing its name should require “an act of Congress”.
The lawsuit says Beatty had phoned into the meeting about the name change but was muted when she tried to voice her opposition. She is one of several lawmakers designated as members of the board by US law.
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.