Broadway actress Patti LuPone sparked outrage this week after saying the Kennedy Center, now led by President Donald Trump, “should get blown up.” The inflammatory comment drew swift condemnation from conservatives, including Trump’s envoy for special missions and Kennedy Center President, Ric Grenell, who said LuPone was “giving aid and comfort to the crazies.” LuPone’s rhetoric is the latest example of Hollywood elites embracing violent imagery when it comes to institutions associated with Trump.
LuPone commented to New Yorker writer Michael Schulman, saying that she told him “more than once, that the Trumpified Kennedy Center "should get blown up.”
Shortly after entering office for the second time, Trump, alongside Grenell, vowed to “fix” the Kennedy Center, which was in “tremendous disrepair” after it was taken hold of by drag shows "targeting" children and other woke programs.
In response to LuPone’s remarks, Grenell stated that while he doesn't believe the Broadway star would actually bomb the performing arts center, her comments are dangerous, urging Democrats and left-leaning individuals to condemn her remarks.
“We should have every Democrat, every left-leaning person condemning what she said," Grenell said. "Do I actually believe Patti Lupone is going to build a bomb and throw it inside the Kennedy Center? No, I don't believe that. However, she is giving aid and comfort to the crazies.”
“She is giving aid and comfort to somebody who says, 'Patti Lupone wants me to go blow up the Kennedy Center.' We need to call this out. This needs to stop — this radical left extremism that's morphing into violence. This has to stop,” he continued.
This isn’t the first time Patti LuPone has expressed her disdain for President Trump. In 2017, she said she wouldn’t perform for him if he attended one of her shows, stating, “because I hate the mother—.” In 2020, she also claimed she would move to Ireland if Trump were elected president. Five years later, she remains in the United States.