On Tuesday evening, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump made a notable appearance at the newly renamed Trump Kennedy Center to enjoy the opening night of the Broadway classic, “Chicago.”
The President was seen acknowledging the crowd as he made his way to the President’s box in the revered performing arts venue. Meanwhile, the First Lady embraced the theme of the night, donning a stylish outfit reminiscent of the 1920s flapper era.
Their arrival stirred a mix of reactions from the audience, who responded with both standing ovations and a few boos, highlighting the varied sentiment in the room.
Among the notable figures in attendance was Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox News host. Pirro, who Trump appointed as the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, was seated in proximity to the presidential couple.
As the lights dimmed and the curtain rose, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt took the opportunity to announce that President Trump would be delivering a significant address on Iran the following evening, adding a political note to the evening’s entertainment.
As the performance was starting, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that Trump would be delivering a major address on Iran on Wednesday night.
The first couple last appeared at the Kennedy Center in late January to take the First Lady’s documentary, Melania.
President Donald Trump (right) gesticulates at the audience alongside First Lady Melania Trump as the first couple attended the opening night of the musical Chicago at the newly renamed Trump Kennedy Center Tuesday night
President Donald Trump (right) and First Lady Melania Trump (left) were greeted with a standing ovation and some boos as they arrived Tuesday night to the Kennedy Center to take in the musical, Chicago
They also attended the Kennedy Center Honors in December, with Trump playing the role of the show’s host – a first – drawing on his reality TV and entertainment background.
In June, the Trumps walked the red carpet on the opening night of Les Misérables, with the First Lady telling the Daily Mail she was a fan.
‘I am, thank you,’ Melania Trump said.
Both longtime New Yorkers, the first couple said they had seen several Broadway performances, with the President guessing his first show was Cats.
The First Lady said her first show was Phantom of the Opera.
The Kennedy Center didn’t host a red carpet for Tuesday night’s performance of Chicago, with reporters only allowed in the room to capture the Trumps’ entrance.
During Les Misérables, several drag queens were in the audience in a show of protest, as LGBTQ-friendly programming has been scrapped amid the MAGA takeover of the center, meant to be a memorial for Democratic President John F. Kennedy.
Performers have also boycotted the Kennedy Center, moving shows elsewhere.
Judge Jeanine Pirro (far left), the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, was spotted seated nearby President Donald Trump (right) and First Lady Melania Trump (center) at the Trump Kennedy Center Tuesday night
Several of the cast members of Les Misérables had threatened to skip opening night over the President’s attendance.
‘I couldn’t care less. Honestly, I couldn’t,’ Trump said when asked about the theater performers’ boycott. ‘All I do is run the country well.’
Trump had put his former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell in charge of the MAGA-fied Kennedy Center, but Grenell stepped down from the post this month ahead of the center’s two-year closure.
Earlier in the day, a federal judge halted Trump’s ballroom project – leading him to go off about a Kennedy Center-related lawsuit as well.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which was behind the ballroom lawsuit, is also a plaintiff in the Kennedy Center lawsuit, which is attempting to stop the large-scale renovations Trump has planned for the performing arts venue.
In a statement on the lawsuit, which was filed last week, the Trust pointed out that Trump had floated that he may take the historic venue ‘down to the steel’ once it’s closed on July 4.
It also referenced how the White House’s East Wing was torn down in October after the President ‘assured the American public that the East wing of the White House would remain untouched during construction of his ballroom – and then approved its complete demolition.’
Trump, only days before the East Wing’s destruction, revealed to a group in the East Room that he was bringing the building entirely down.
President Donald Trump points down at the audience as he arrives at the Trump Kennedy Center for the opening night of Chicago. Earlier Tuesday, he railed against a lawsuit that seeks to make him gain Congressional approval for Kennedy Center renovations
The full plans for the Kennedy Center renovation have not been released to the public.
In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, Trump referred to the National Trust for Historic Preservation as a ‘Radical Left Group of Lunatics.’
He referenced the ballroom lawsuit and then segued to the Kennedy Center.
‘I then get sued by them over the renovation of the dilapidated and structurally unsound former Kennedy Center, now, The Trump Kennedy Center (A show of Bipartisan Unity, a Republican and Democrat President!), where all I am doing is fixing, cleaning, running, and “sprucing up” a terribly maintained, for many years, Building, but a Building of potentially great importance,’ he said.
He then bemoaned how the group didn’t step in and sue over the renovations at the Federal Reserve building – which were approved by several historic preservation groups – and California Governor Gavin Newsom’s ‘RAILROAD TO NOWHERE.’
‘So, the White House Ballroom, and The Trump Kennedy Center, which are under budget, ahead of schedule, and will be among the most magnificent Buildings of their kind anywhere in the World, gets sued by a group that was cut off by Government years ago, but all of the many DISASTERS in our Country are left alone to die. Doesn’t make much sense, does it?’ Trump said.
After being funded by the federal government for 30 years, the National Trust for Historic Preservation moved to being funded by private donors.
