Broadway veteran Patti LuPone lashed out at President Donald Trump for his overhaul of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and called for the building to “get blown up,” in an interview published Monday.
In February, Trump fired several Kennedy Center board members, including the president and chairman, and replaced them with pro-Trump figures, who then named the president as chairman.
In a post to Truth Social announcing the changes, Trump vowed to make the performing arts center “great again,” by removing board members who did not share his administration’s “vision for a Golden Age in arts and culture.” Trump said that drag shows “targeting” children were one example of programming at the Kennedy Center that would end under his leadership.
His actions stirred backlash in the theater and film world, with multiple artists resigning from their roles or canceling upcoming performances at the Kennedy Center in protest.
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LuPone, 76, slammed the Trump takeover in new comments to New Yorker writer Michael Schulman.
“She’s even angrier at the rest of the country,” Schulman wrote. “She told me, more than once, that the Trumpified Kennedy Center ‘should get blown up.’”
LuPone also told the outlet that she wished that the Trump administration would “Leave New York alone.” She has been an outspoken critic of Trump over the years.
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Ahead of the 2020 election, LuPone said she was considering moving to Ireland if Trump won.
On the Tony Awards red carpet in 2017, she said that she would not perform for Trump if he came to one of her shows, “because I hate the mother—.”
Richard Grenell, president of the Kennedy Center, slammed LuPone’s comments in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“The far left has morphed into violent extremists. This is completely unacceptable – from the same people who claim to be for tolerance and diversity. Everyone should condemn these radicals,” Grenell said.
LuPone did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital, “President Trump cares deeply about American arts and culture, which is why he is revitalizing historic institutions like the Kennedy Center to their former greatness.”
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