On Wednesday night, the Interim Executive Director of the Kennedy Center, along with President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, was in the audience at the famed venue as the opening night of the show went off without a hitch.

“Weeks ago, CNN had multiple anonymous sources who said the cast of Les Mis would absolutely boycott the opening at the @kencen and shut down the show,” Grenell wrote on X.

Weeks ago, CNN had multiple anonymous sources who said the cast of Les Mis would absolutely boycott the opening at the @kencen and shut down the show.

Most every news outlet in the U.S. simply repeated the same anonymously sourced item. No outlet did original reporting. It was…

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) June 12, 2025

“Most every news outlet in the U.S. simply repeated the same anonymously sourced item. No outlet did original reporting. It was repeat and retweet,” he added. “The story was fake news. I knew it at the time, but wanted to wait to prove it to the world.”

“Do you think @cnn will apologize, correct the record or learn from their mistakes?” Grenell asked. “Nope. They aren’t interested [in] accuracy – they are about attention and clicks. It’s sick and manipulative and immoral.”

On the red carpet at the Kennedy Center, members of the media asked President Trump about the boycott reports, too, and the president reacted to them in true Trump fashion.

“I couldn’t care less … All I do is run the country well,” Trump replied, talking about the economic numbers and the success of his tariff policy.

Inside the center Wednesday night, President Trump and the first lady were greeted with cheers and shouts of “USA, USA!” as our sister site Twitchy reported.

🚨 JUST IN: President Trump and First Lady Melania were greeted with MASSIVE cheers as they took their seats at the Kennedy Center

The whole crowd erupted in “USA! USA!” 🇺🇸

So great to see this! Enjoy Les Miserables, Mr. and Mrs. Trump. pic.twitter.com/DABRgsBS4Y

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) June 12, 2025

Grenell has proven to be fearless as the interim leader of the famed center and recently dropped some harsh reality on Kennedy Center performers after rumors surfaced about the cast allegedly threatening to boycott over Trump’s reported appearance at a “Les Misérables” performance, RedState reported.

He stated that it shows who isn’t “professional” in the performance company and that any producer thinking of hiring any of these performers might be inspired to think again. 

“Any performer who isn’t professional enough to perform for patrons of all backgrounds, regardless of political affiliation, won’t be welcomed,” Grenell said in the full quote. “In fact, we think it would be important to out those vapid and intolerant artists to ensure producers know who they shouldn’t hire — and that the public knows which shows have political litmus tests to sit in the audience.”

“The Kennedy Center wants to be a place where people of all political stripes sit next to each other and never ask who someone voted for but instead enjoy a performance together,” he added.