President Donald Trump’s legal losses in the Kennedy Center fiasco are piling up.
A Washington D.C. judge on Friday trashed a lawsuit brought by Trump’s Kennedy Center team against jazz drummer Chuck Redd that had claimed the musician broke a contract when he canceled a Christmas concert following the addition of the current president’s name to the center.
The judge threw out Trump team’s complaint after Redd presented evidence that no such contract existed and asked the court to toss the legal action.
Trump’s team “sued Mr. Redd because he publicly and rightly objected to adding Donald Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center, a living memorial to former President John F. Kennedy,” Lisa J. Banks, a lawyer for Redd, said in a statement. “The lawsuit against Mr. Redd was political retribution, pure and simple, by the Trump Kennedy Center, and the Court correctly saw it as such in dismissing the case with prejudice.”
In December, Trump allies installed in leadership at the center changed its name to The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Shortly after, Redd informed the venue he and his fellow musicians wouldn’t be performing the annual Christmas concert, which he had led since 2006, legal filings showed.
In an email that was part of legal filings, Redd told the center’s bookers that he was exiting because of the “illegal” name change and that he would be “uncomfortable” playing there. Bookers had sent Redd a contract for the 2025 Christmas concert in early December, but he never signed it before canceling, and the center withdrew the unsigned agreement, according to legal filings.
After canceling, Redd told The Associated Press “When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert.”
Following that comment, Ric Grenell, the former president of the center installed by Trump, sent Redd a letter, saying the center was suing and seeking $1 million in damages for the musician’s “political stunt,” according to Redd’s lawyers. Trump’s team sued the drummer in March. Later that month, Redd requested the court dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that without a signed contract the Trump team had no basis for suing.
The dismissal of the lawsuit is the latest legal defeat for Trump and his allies after the president installed his regime at the Kennedy Center in 2025, catalyzing a slew of cancelations by artists and throwing the center into chaos. In late May, a federal judge ordered the center to remove all vestiges of Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center, finding that only Congress has the power to change venue’s name. The judge also halted plans for a closure of the center for renovations.
Trump seemed to admit defeat in his name’s removal, saying he would “transfer this failing Institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it.”
