{"id":5736,"date":"2026-08-11T18:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T18:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5736"},"modified":"2026-08-11T18:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T18:40:15","slug":"kennedy-center-ordered-to-pay-250000-to-jazz-musician-it-unsuccessfully-sued-for-backing-out-of-concert-after-trump-rebranding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5736","title":{"rendered":"Kennedy Center Ordered to Pay $250,000 to Jazz Musician It Unsuccessfully Sued for Backing Out of Concert After Trump Rebranding"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tA judge has ruled that the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. must pay a jazz musician $252,000 in legal fees and costs, following the organization\u2019s unsuccessful lawsuit against him for pulling out of a concert in the wake of a rebranding to include Donald J. Trump\u2018s name.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5734\">Emmy Predictions: Lead Actor (Comedy) \u2014 Matthew Rhys Takes on Two Legends Still Seeking Their First Wins<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tChuck Redd hosted and performed at the Kennedy Center\u2019s annual Christmas Eve concerts for years, but he bowed out of performing at last December\u2019s planned gig, citing \u201cthe defiant and illegal name change happening to the Kennedy Center.\u201d The Kennedy Center \u2014 or the Trump Kennedy Center, as it was then temporarily known \u2014 subsequently sued Redd for breach of contract, only to have the suit thrown out in June.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tIn a statement Tuesday, Lisa J. Banks, one of Redd\u2019s attorneys, said: \u201cThe Trump-controlled Kennedy Center tried to silence opposition to its illegal name change by filing a meritless lawsuit against jazz musician Chuck Redd. \u00a0The court rightly dismissed that breach of contract lawsuit, finding there was no contract and no damages, and was brought against Mr. Redd based on his protected opposition. \u00a0Now the court has ordered the Kennedy Center to pay Mr. Redd\u2019s legal fees, which is appropriate as no citizen should have to spend time and money fending off baseless and politically motivated lawsuits filed by the Trump Administration.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe org, which has been taken over by Trump allies, made a show of threatening to sue Redd, and then following through on it. \u201cThis is your official notice that we will seek $1 million in damages from you for this political stunt,\u201d Richard Grenell, then-president of the center, told Redd in a letter after he backed out.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tIn June, D.C. Superior Court Judge Tanya Jones Bosier tossed the lawsuit, saying there was no signed contract to be breached. While Redd had been in talks to perform on Christmas Eve 2025, as in past years, \u201cI could not find a valid breach-of-contract claim here,\u201d Jones Bosier said in dismissing the suit. \u201cThere\u2019s no dispute that he did not sign the 2025 agreement.\u201d The Kennedy Center had argued that he had \u201cagreed to a written contract\u201d to play the gig for $6,500, regardless of whether he actually signed it.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5732\">\u2018Possession\u2019 Remake, Starring Margaret Qualley and Callum Turner, Sets Summer 2027 Release Date<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\nAccording to Redd\u2019s attorneys, the Center had secretly offered to settle the lawsuit against Redd before the judge threw it out, saying they would drop it if the jazz musician paid them $7,500 and played on Christmas Eve 2026 with no political commentary or discussion of his reasons for backing out in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tPrior to Monday\u2019s ruling, attorneys for the Kennedy Center had argued that the amount being requested was \u201cout of all proportion to the issue at stake,\u201d  but Jones Bosier found that $252,000 was reasonable for the amount of work Redd\u2019s lawyers had had to put in.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tOn May 29, a federal judge ordered\u00a0the removal of Trump\u2019s name from the fa\u00e7ade of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts\u00a0in ruling that the board\u2019s move to add Trump\u2019s name to the center was illegal. The exterior of the Kennedy Center is still covered by a tarp after worked pried Trump\u2019s name off the building, and a judge has asked the board to explain why the covering has not been removed.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5730\">\u2018Pacifiction\u2019 Director Albert Serra on His New Film \u2019Sixteen Moments of My Life\u2019 and Why He\u2019d Love to Have Directed Elvis Presley<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A judge ordered the Kennedy Center to pay $250,000 to a jazz musician it unsuccessfully sued over backing out of a concert following a Trump takeover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[877,1017],"class_list":["post-5736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-donald-j-trump","tag-kennedy-center"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kennedy Center Ordered to Pay $250,000 to Jazz Musician It Unsuccessfully Sued for Backing Out of Concert After Trump Rebranding - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5736\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kennedy Center Ordered to Pay $250,000 to Jazz Musician It Unsuccessfully Sued for Backing Out of Concert After Trump Rebranding - Relocation Observer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A judge ordered the Kennedy Center to pay $250,000 to a jazz musician it unsuccessfully sued over backing out of a concert following a Trump takeover.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5736\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Relocation Observer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-11T18:40:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationobserver.com\\\/?p=5736#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationobserver.com\\\/?p=5736\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationobserver.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2243ff062b31c5195cd0d9f83884e83e\"},\"headline\":\"Kennedy Center Ordered to Pay $250,000 to Jazz Musician It Unsuccessfully Sued for Backing Out of Concert After Trump Rebranding\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-11T18:40:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationobserver.com\\\/?p=5736\"},\"wordCount\":623,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationobserver.com\\\/?p=5736#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationobserver.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/2e1b87155e28e8926ff0262da7090914.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"Donald J. 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