John F Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts punters didn’t hide their feelings when Donald Trump turned up at the Washington DC venue yesterday (June 11).
In town to soak up the opening night of Les Misérables alongside his wife Melania, Trump, who is the center’s chairman, felt the wrath of theatregoers after announcing significant changes to this year’s programming.
This included axing “woke” productions starring drag artists and overhauling the venue’s leadership.
As the couple took their seats, attendees heckled and booed the US President, but The Mirror reports he just brushed it off with typical proudness.
Such was Trump’s effect on the place, its balcony and orchestra section suffered a number of empty seats, while understudies filled in for central cast members who boycotted the opening night after learning of the President’s planned attendance.
“I couldn’t care less,” he told the media after being informed about the boycott.
Subscription package sales are understood to have dropped following Trump’s election, which led to the likes of stage play Hamilton cancelling its planned run at the centre.
Barbie star Issa Rae and musician Rhiannon Giddens scrapped their scheduled appearances, and Ben Folds and Renée Fleming resigned from their posts as Kennedy Centre consultants.
Earlier this year, JD Vance was booed at the same venue when he attended.
In other news, Trump ordered thousands more troops to descend on Los Angeles this week, after aggressive protests broke out in the Californian city last weekend.
2,000 National Guard soldiers and around 700 active-duty US Marines were deployed, armed with tear gas and rubber bullets.
California’s governor Gavin Newsom subsequently spoken out against the President’s manouvere, claiming Marines “shouldn’t be deployed on American soil facing their own countrymen to fulfill the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial President. This is un-American.”
Related: Trump gives chilling speech as he gets troops to boo California governor