President Donald Trump was greeted with boos, as well as cheers, and chants of “USA!” as he took his seat for the opening night of Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday.
It’s the first time Trump has attended a show at the venue since he fired the Kennedy Center’s leadership, putting MAGA loyalist Richard Grenell in charge of the famed performing arts institution and naming himself chairman of the board.
He promised to scrap “woke” programming that aligned with what he called leftist ideology, which includes drag shows and “anti-American propaganda,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
The move upset some of the center’s patrons and performers, and it was reported that several cast members planned to skip the show in protest of his attendance on Wednesday.
When one group of ticket holders found out that Trump, Vance and their wives, Melania and Usha, would be in attendance, they donated their tickets to a group of drag performers, according to Qommittee, as reported by Houston Public Media.
Videos posted on social media show the drag performers being cheered before Trump arrived. Other videos showed the president taking his seat to a combination of boos and cheers from the audience.
When Trump walked the red carpet with first lady Melania Trump ahead of the show, he said he was not bothered by the reported boycott.
“I couldn’t care less, honestly, I couldn’t,” Trump said.
“All I do is run the country well. The economic numbers you saw them today, they’re setting records. We took $88 billion in tariffs in two months, far beyond what anybody expected. There’s no inflation. People are happy. People are wealthy. The country is getting back to strength again. That’s what I care about.”
Trump also spoke about his plans for the Kennedy Center, whose board he replaced with loyalists, some of whom were in attendance Wednesday, including Usha Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
“We want to bring it back, and we want to bring it back better than ever,” Trump said from the red carpet. “As you know it needs a little help from the standpoint of age and fitness, but it’s going to be fantastic.”
Trump has previously proclaimed his love for Les Misérables, telling Fox News: “I love the songs; I love the play. I think it’s great.”
He has played the musical’s rebellion anthem, “Do You Here the People Sing?” at past events and rallies. The story revolves around revolution in France, and has been a massive smash for decades.
Trump also suggested that “we may extend” the show’s run. Currently, Les Misérables is slated to run at the Kennedy Center through July 13.
The political drama at the center comes just two months after audience members booed the Vances and they took their upper-level seats at the National Symphony Orchestra.
Back in 2016, incoming vice president Mike Pence was booed when he attended a production of Hamilton with his family.
Pence acknowledged that he heard “a few boos” and “some cheers” and told his kids at the time, “that’s what freedom sounds like.”
The ethnically diverse cast of the popular and sold-out musical, which tells the story of America’s Founding Fathers, asked Pence not to leave the venue before he listened to what they wanted to say – which was that people were worried that Trump would “not protect them.”
While Trump demanded an apology from the cast at the time and called the show “overrated”, Pence told Fox News at the time that he, his daughter and cousins “really enjoyed the show”.
