When President Donald Trump hosted the board of the Kennedy Middle on the White Home on Monday evening, the adviser he chosen to guide the establishment, Ric Grenell, spoke briefly of what he characterised as a “fraud” in the best way that the funds of the establishment had been beforehand dealt with.
However the one who Grenell changed, Deborah Rutter, in the present day known as out what she known as a “malicious try to distort the info” about her tenure.
“I stand by my assertion that on the time of my departure, the Kennedy Middle was fiscally sound, on
observe to steadiness its finances for the yr, and positioned to develop its endowment considerably whereas
serving as a beacon totally free inventive expression and a spot the place everybody might belong,” Rutter mentioned in an announcement.
Simply weeks into his presidency, Trump eliminated all of the board members who had been appointed by Joe Biden. The Trump-controlled board ousted Rutter, and Trump himself changed the chairman, David Rubenstein. Grenell, a longtime adviser, was named the brand new president.
On the White Home dinner on Monday, with figures reminiscent of Steve Wynn and Lee Greenwood in attendance, Grenell mentioned that Trump “is definitely saving the Kennedy Middle,” whereas calling the deferred upkeep on the complicated “prison.”
Grenell mentioned that the brand new CFO of the Kennedy Middle, Donna Arduin, went by the budgets from 2024 and 2025 and located $26 million in “phantom income.”
“It’s prison,” Grenell mentioned, including that they might refer the matter to the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace.
Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi is a member of the board, Grenell famous, and “she heard all the main points. “That is unacceptable in America to have a faux income of $26 million — fraud on earlier donors.”
In her assertion, Rutter, who led the middle for 10 years, mentioned that in her tenure they “adopted an working finances for the upcoming fiscal yr, which was permitted by the board. That finances served as a blueprint for our operations and programming – commonplace and accountable follow in arts administration. As well as, in keeping with established administration greatest practices, the Finance, Audit, and Govt Committees of the Board—composed of appointees from President Trump’s first time period—had full transparency into all monetary transactions and selections. Monetary statements, in addition to audit stories, had been offered at each board assembly, in success of the board’s fiduciary duties.”
She additionally mentioned that they established a reserve fund to cowl potential shortfalls, and that about $10 million was accessible on the time she left in February.
She added that since she left, she has not entry to the present monetary state of affairs state of affairs “nor as to how adjustments in administration in addition to donor and patron conduct is impacting this yr’s working finances.”
Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Middle was adopted by a variety of artists backing out of reveals, together with the producers of Hamilton, which was to run in 2026.
“Maybe these now in cost are going through important monetary gaps and are in search of to attribute them to previous administration, which would come with the Board of Trustees, a few of whom had been appointed by President Trump, in his earlier time period,” Rutter mentioned.
She additionally invoked a authorized commonplace utilized by public figures in defamation claims. “This malicious try to distort the info, which had been persistently, transparently and available in professionally audited monetary stories, recklessly disregards the reality.”
Trump beforehand visited the Kennedy Middle in March and known as for upgrading the amenities. He additionally criticized a latest growth of the complicated. As Home Republicans search to go a large reconciliation invoice, one finances proposal, reportedly requested by the White Home, is for $257 million to renovate the Kennedy Middle. Trump has in any other case sought to get rid of funding for main arts and cultural businesses, together with the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts and the Nationwide Endowment for the Humanities.
In an announcement to The Washington Put up, Rubenstein mentioned that “with full transparency, the monetary stories had been reviewed and permitted by the Kennedy Middle’s audit committee and full board in addition to a significant accounting agency.”
A Kennedy Middle spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The Kennedy Middle’s finances in 2024 is about $268 million, per Rubenstein, and $45 million of that comes from a federal appropriation for use for operations and upkeep.
The Kennedy Middle’s new administration beneath Grenell not too long ago introduced its upcoming season, with a line up that features Broadway musicals The Outsiders, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Again to the Future The Musical, Mrs. Doubtfire and Spamalot.
Trump had criticized the Kennedy Middle’s previous programming, and on the White Home on Monday, chided what he characterised as “rampant political propaganda, DEI and inappropriate reveals.”
“That they had dance events for queer and trans youth,” Trump mentioned, including that that they had “a marxist anti-police efficiency and so they had lesbian-only Shakespeare.”
Grenell mentioned that “if you choose packages which might be in style with the general public, they reply. Folks purchase tickets.”
“I wish to be challenged by the humanities,” Grenell mentioned. “I prefer it when any individual can train me and make me a bit bit uncomfortable in a present. However one factor that we aren’t going to do on the Kennedy Middle is inappropriate content material for youngsters.”
The Kennedy Middle’s lineup for this season, chosen when Rutter and Rubenstein nonetheless led the establishment, additionally was heavy in Broadway reveals and non-controversial fare, together with Legally Blonde: The Musical, The Sound of Music and The twenty fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. One other present, Les Misérables, opens subsequent month, Trump is reportedly planning to host a fundraiser tied to the efficiency.
