Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell will no longer head the prestigious arts center, according to President Donald Trump.
Grenell, a close ally of Trump’s, will be replaced by Matt Floca, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of facilities operations, according to a post from Trump on Truth Social. The announcement comes just three months before the arts center is set to close for a two-year renovation.
“I am pleased to announce that Matt Floca, subject to the approval of the Board of Directors, will be named the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director, of THE TRUMP KENNEDY CENTER where, as Vice President of Operations, Matt has helped us achieve tremendous progress in bringing the Center to the highest level of Excellence!” Trump wrote on Friday.
Grenell is expected to stay on as an unpaid consultant, Axios reports. He is also Trump’s envoy for special missions. Grenell was named president of the arts center in February 2025 as part of Trump’s leadership overhaul at the institution.
At the time, Trump welcomed Grenell with a post on Truth Social saying “RIC, WELCOME TO SHOW BUSINESS.”
On Friday, Trump thanked Grenell for his time at the arts center.
“Ric Grenell has done an excellent job in helping to coordinate various elements of the Center during the transition period, and I want to thank him for the outstanding work he has done,” Trump wrote.
In addition to placing Grenell at its helm last year, Trump also replaced the institution’s board of trustees with his own hand-picked board. The same board voted to rename the arts center the “Trump-Kennedy Center” in December 2025. The name change is symbolic as it can only legally be changed by Congress.
Trump has used the venue to host several events, including the FIFA World Cup draw and the world premiere of first lady Melania Trump’s Amazon documentary.
Grenell’s tenure as the president of the Kennedy Center was notable for the surge of artists canceling their shows at the venue, many in response to Trump’s decision to remove the board and add his name to the building.
In response, Grenell has blamed the cancellations on “left wing” media pressure.
“I have just been informed by some booked artists that they are receiving emails from [CNN] and [The Washington Post] encouraging them to boycott the Trump Kennedy Center,” Grenell wrote on X in December. “The legacy media are left wing activists – and they are open about it.”
In late December, drummer and vibraphonist Chuck Redd — who has been the longtime host for the Kennedy Center’s Christmas Eve Jazz Jam — canceled the event. His decision came shorty after the venue’s board announced it would rename the venue to include the president’s name.
Grenell was furious, and demanded $1 million from the musician as recompense.
“Your decision to withdraw at the last moment — explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure — is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution,” Grenell reportedly wrote in a letter to Redd, which was obtained byThe Washington Post.
Grenell was also given the task of informing the center’s staff that most of them would be impacted by the institution’s closure.
“During this aggressive construction phase, departments will obviously function on a much smaller scale with some units totally reduced or on hold until we begin preparations to reopen in 2028,” Grenell wrote to staff in an email in February, which was obtained by The Washington Post. “This period will mean permanent or temporary adjustments for most everyone. We will provide as much clarity and advance notice as possible.”
He added that he, along with department heads, would “make the decisions as to what these skeletal teams left in place during the facility closure and construction phase will look like.”
