Insider Exposes Trump’s Staggering Kennedy Center Grift

Posted 2 hours ago by

The Daily Beast

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/ReutersThe Donald Trump takeover of the Kennedy Center has led to widespread cancellations, plunging ticket sales, and, ultimately, being shuttered for two years starting this summer.But a former staffer is shedding new light on just how far the Trump administration grifted after the takeover of the arts institution before he, along with other staffers, was shown the door.Josef Palermo was the Kennedy Center’s first curator of visual arts and was hired by former director Ric Grenell, despite having never voted for Trump, to build out the visual arts program for visitors when no show was running.