Judge Dismisses Trump Team’s Lawsuit Against Jazz Drummer Over Kennedy Center Cancellation

A Washington D.C. judge has dismissed the lawsuit brought by President Trump’s Kennedy Center leadership against jazz drummer Chuck Redd. The case, filed after Redd canceled his annual Christmas concert in protest of the institution’s sudden rebrand, was thrown out with prejudice when Redd’s lawyers showed that no contract had ever been signed.

Redd, who had led the concert since 2006, informed the center he would not perform following the Trump allies’ decision to rename it The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last December. “When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert,” he told the Associated Press at the time. Bookers had sent him an unsigned agreement for the 2025 show, but he never signed it, and the venue withdrew the offer before the cancellation. Despite this, Ric Grenell, the former Trump-installed president of the center, sent a letter threatening a $1 million suit for what he called a “political stunt.” The legal claim was filed in March.

Redd’s attorney Lisa J. Banks called the suit “political retribution, pure and simple,” adding that the court “correctly saw it as such.” The dismissal adds to a string of legal defeats for the Trump team at the Kennedy Center. In late May, a federal judge ordered the removal of Trump’s name from the venue, ruling that only Congress could alter it, and halted renovation closures. The drummer’s victory underscores the shaky ground of efforts to penalize artists who objected to the politicized rebranding of a public arts institution.