The Trump-backed interim president of the Kennedy Center lashed out at ABC Tuesday for the grave crime of including Lin-Manuel Miranda in American Idol.
Ric Grenell took to X after Monday’s episode revealed that Miranda, who has declined to perform at the venue after its Trump-led makeover, will be mentoring contestants in the lead-up to the season 23 finale later this month.
“Shame on you, @AmericanIdol. Inviting @Lin_Manuel to be a mentor to young people 3 weeks after Lin pulled his show from the Kennedy Center because he can’t work with Republicans is an obvious move to support political intolerance,“ Grenell complained.
“We need performers who perform for everyone. Not radicals who litmus test the audience’s voting history. Dumb move,” he added, tagging ABC and Federal Communications Chairman Brendan Carr, the administration’s apparent go-to man for acts of retribution against the press.
It’s unclear what Carr could possibly do about ABC incorporating Miranda into one of its shows.
In February, Donald Trump appointed Grenell to his post as part of the president’s right-wing overhaul of the iconic performing arts center. Trump also made himself chairman.
Several artists subsequently pulled out of planned performances, or otherwise pledged to not perform. Among them was Miranda and Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller, who canceled a performance of the Broadway musical to protest Trump’s takeover.
Grenell flipped out then too, calling their decision a “publicity stunt that will backfire.”
Miranda explained an interview then that the venue “is not the Kennedy Center as we knew it.”
“The Kennedy Center was not created in this spirit, and we’re not going to be a part of it while it is the Trump Kennedy Center,” he said. “We’re just not going to be part of it.”
