{"id":363503,"date":"2025-11-08T01:58:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T01:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/363503\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T01:58:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T01:58:12","slug":"trumps-kennedy-center-head-richard-grenell-has-bizarre-80s-star-obsession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/363503\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Kennedy Center Head Richard Grenell Has Bizarre \u201980s Star Obsession"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trump-appointed interim president of the Kennedy Center has a secret fixation, and it doesn\u2019t involve improving plummeting ticket sales<\/a>. Instead, Richard Grenell reportedly hopes to make the center\u2019s programming more \u201clike Paula Abdul.\u201d <\/p>\n

Jane Raleigh, who was the Kennedy Center\u2019s dance director until Grenell fired her in August, told the New York Times<\/a> on Friday that the former diplomat often brought up the pop star, and \u201csaid that he wanted programming that could \u2018be like Paula Abdul.\u2019\u201d The Daily Beast has contacted the Kennedy Center for comment. <\/p>\n

\"RichardRichard Grenell is reportedly fascinated with Paula Abdul and feels especially knowledgeable about dance because his husband briefly danced on Broadway. Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

President Trump named Grenell, 59, interim president of the Kennedy Center in February. At the time, Trump wrote on Truth Social<\/a> that Grenell would ensure \u201cNO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA\u2014ONLY THE BEST.\u201d Now, Grenell\u2019s staff say his version of \u201cthe best\u201d includes a lot of \u201980s pop. <\/p>\n

Abdul, who rose to fame in the late 1980s with her album Forever Your Girl, is known for her upbeat pop songs and energetic dancing. Before serving as a judge on American Idol and The Masked Dancer, Abdul worked as a choreographer for Janet Jackson and recorded six #1 singles. <\/p>\n

\"CHARLOTTE,Paula Abdul was a hit-making artist 40 years ago. Jeff Hahne\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Grenell, meanwhile, has no background in the arts. Instead, he is the former ambassador to Germany whose work in the Trump administration has historically involved international relations, including recent negotiations with Venezuela. <\/p>\n

However, Raleigh told the Times that Grenell often referenced his husband\u2019s past work on Broadway as evidence of his arts expertise. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe would bring up his husband as a way to be like, \u2018Well, I know a lot about entertaining dance because I fell in love with a dancer,\u2019\u201d said Raleigh.<\/p>\n

Grennell\u2019s partner, Matt Lashey, danced in the ensembles of the 2001 musical 42nd Street and the 2002 revival of Thoroughly Modern Millie. He is now the CEO of ChemoWave, an app for chemotherapy patients.<\/p>\n

\"StephenStephen Nakagawa, a former dancer who vowed to \u201cend the dominance of leftist ideologies in the arts and return to classical ballet\u2019s purity,” replaced the center’s dance director of more than a decade in August. Stephen Nakagawa\/Instagram <\/p>\n

Grenell replaced Raleigh with former Washington Ballet dancer Stephen Nakagawa, who vowed in his cover letter to \u201cend the dominance of leftist ideologies in the arts and return to classical ballet\u2019s purity.\u201d <\/p>\n

Under Grenell and Nakagawa\u2019s leadership, the center\u2019s upcoming dance performances are expected to fill as few as 4 percent<\/a> of available seats. <\/p>\n

Trump initially said that Grenell would be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Kennedy Center. However, staff say the interim president quickly outsourced those responsibilities to aides with no experience working in the arts. <\/p>\n

Staff who spoke to the Times say most of the daily operations are handled by Grenell\u2019s two right-hand men: Rick Loughery, the former national chairman of the Young Republicans, and Nick Meade, Grenell\u2019s senior advisor from his time as a special envoy to the president. The trio are reportedly referred to within the building as \u201cRic and the Icks.\u201d <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, ticket sales have continued to plummet at the Kennedy Center. Between early September and late October, roughly 43 percent<\/a> of the center\u2019s available tickets for its productions went unsold. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump-appointed interim president of the Kennedy Center has a secret fixation, and it doesn\u2019t involve improving plummeting…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":363504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[185,171,31760,176163,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-363503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-kennedy-center","11":"tag-paula-abdul","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115511605655601692","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}