A whistleblower is accusing President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Ric Grenell, of presiding over a period of upheaval at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, describing an institution reshaped by political loyalty, donor access, and beset by cronyism.
Josef Palermo, the center’s former visual arts curator, told MS NOW that the dysfunction followed the 2025 takeover by Trump allies. In a separate interview with PBS NewsHour, Palermo said the changes inside the Kennedy Center exposed a culture where relationships and proximity to power appeared to outweigh expertise.
In a first-person account published in The Atlantic, Palermo offered a granular portrait of Grenell’s leadership, one he said was defined by both direct intervention and distance from the institution’s day-to-day needs. He wrote that Grenell, one of Trump’s most fervent gay supporters, instructed him to “get rid of everything” in the Kennedy Center’s permanent art collection ahead of a planned renovation, a directive that alarmed staff and raised questions about the fate of historically significant works.
At the same time, Palermo described a leadership vacuum. He wrote that Grenell never held an all-staff meeting during his tenure and often declined or ignored requests to meet with staff working on programming and exhibitions. The result, Palermo suggested, was an institution struggling to function artistically even as it projected confidence publicly.
Palermo also alleged blurred ethical...
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