On Tuesday evening, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump made a notable appearance at the newly renamed Trump Kennedy Center. The occasion was the opening night of the iconic Broadway show, Chicago. As they arrived at the historic performance venue, President Trump acknowledged the audience from the President’s box, while the First Lady dazzled in a white, 1920s-inspired flapper dress.

The couple’s presence garnered a mixed reaction from the audience, who responded with both cheers and some boos. Among those in attendance was Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox News host and current U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, appointed by Trump. Adding to the evening’s significance, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that President Trump would deliver a major address on Iran the following night.

This visit marked the Trumps’ return to the Kennedy Center after their last appearance in late January, when they attended the screening of the First Lady’s documentary, Melania. They also graced the Kennedy Center Honors in December, where Trump took on the unusual role of host, utilizing his well-known background in reality TV and entertainment.

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.

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. 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.