Kennedy Center director Ric Grenell blasts ‘Hamilton’ producers for canceling plans to perform at venue

Kennedy Center Interim Director Ric Grenell accused “Hamilton” producers of staging a “publicity stunt” and being “intolerant” of Republicans after they canceled plans to perform at the iconic Washington, DC, venue. 

The hit Broadway musical’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and producer Jeffrey Seller said Wednesday that the decision to pull the plug on an upcoming run of shows at the Kennedy Center was because of President Trump’s recent move to replace several board members at the performing arts institution, including its former chairman.  

“Let’s be clear on the facts. Seller and [Miranda] first went to the New York Times before they came to the Kennedy Center with their announcement that they can’t be in the same room with Republicans,” Grenell, who also serves as Trump’s envoy for special missions, wrote on X. 

“This is a publicity stunt that will backfire,” the Trump administration official added. 

Grenell charged that the decision makes it clear that the “Hamilton” bigs “don’t want Republicans” at any of their shows. 

“The Arts are for everyone – not just for the people who Lin likes and agrees with,” Grenell said.  

“The American people need to know that [Miranda] is intolerant of people who don’t agree with him politically,” he continued. “It’s clear he and Sellers [sic] don’t want Republicans going to their shows.” 

“Americans see you, Lin.” 

Miranda did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

The Tony-award winning musical, which chronicles the life of founding father Alexander Hamilton, was set for a third run at the Kennedy Center that would’ve kicked off in March of 2026. 

“[I]t’s not the Kennedy Center as we knew it,” Miranda told the New York Times Wednesday. 

“The Kennedy Center was not created in this spirit, and we’re not going to be a part of it while it is the Trump Kennedy Center,” he added. “We’re just not going to be part of it.”

Seller, in a separate statement posted on X, said he could not “in good conscience, participate and be a part of this new culture” at the Kennedy Center. 

“In recent weeks we have sadly seen decades of Kennedy Center neutrality be destroyed,” he wrote. “The recent purge by the Trump Administration of both professional staff and performing arts events at or originally produced by the Kennedy Center flies in the face of everything this national cultural center represents.”

The producer specifically called out Trump’s decision to fire Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter, Chairman David Rubenstein and other board members.

“We are not acting against his administration, but against the partisan policies of the Kennedy Center as a result of his recent takeover,” Seller argued. 

Trump appointed himself as chairman of the Kennedy Center board last month, arguing that the previous leadership didn’t share his “vision” for the arts.

The new Kennedy Center board, which includes several Trump allies, will usher in a “Golden Age in Arts and Culture” at the famed venue, according to the president.  

“We are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post last month, announcing the firings.