Vance responded to the heckling crowd with a casual wave and a smile before exchanging a couple of indistinguishable words with his wife.
U.S. Vice-President JD Vance faced a cacophony of jeering and jibing at a classical concert in Washington, D.C., on Thursday evening.
Vance and his cohort, including his wife, Usha Vance, entered their box at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as regular pre-concert procedures began and were met with a deeply disgruntled crowd while taking their seats.
Audience members had been inspected by Secret Service agents before the vice-president and his wife entered the auditorium — a process that delayed the concert’s start by almost half an hour.
While boos at sports games between American and Canadian teams have become somewhat customary in recent months, it’s unusual for such overt political protests to take place at classical concerts, whose audiences are notoriously restrained.
Nonetheless, Vance responded to the heckling crowd with a casual wave and a smile before exchanging a couple of indistinguishable words with his wife.
On the bill that evening was an all-Russian lineup of artists, an on-the-nose arrangement given Vance’s punishing exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office in late February, where he and U.S. President Donald Trump chastised the Ukrainian leader.
Following the incident, Richard Grenell, who was recently appointed by Trump as interim executive director of the Kennedy Center, wrote on X that he was concerned by the actions of the audience.
“It troubles me to see that so many in the audience appear to be white and intolerant of diverse political views. Diversity is our strength. We must do better. We must welcome EVERYONE. We will not allow the Kennedy Center to be an intolerant place,” he wrote.
In February, Trump fired the chair of the Kennedy Center board, David Rubinstein, and appointed himself to the position. He also dismissed numerous trustees and brought in new board members, including Usha Vance.
“I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
In a separate post, Trump shared an AI-generated image of himself dressed as a conductor alongside a caption that read, “welcome to the New Kennedy Center.”
He also expressed discontent with the “direction” the Kennedy Center was taking with its shows.
“Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP. The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation. For the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!” he wrote.
In response to the president’s takeover of the iconic venue, which typically takes a neutral political stance, the producers of the hit stage musical Hamilton cancelled a run set for 2026. Actor and musician Issa Rae, among other artists, took the same route.
The Washington Opera and the National Symphony Orchestra both call the Kennedy Center home. The centre puts on more than 2,000 performances annually.
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