Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr
Richard Grenell is stepping down as president of the Trump Kennedy Center, marking the end of a combative and closely watched chapter in President Donald Trump’s effort to reclaim one of the nation’s premier cultural institutions from entrenched left-wing rot.
President Trump announced Friday that Grenell will transition out of the role, while Matt Floca, the center’s vice president of facilities operations, is set to take over as chief operating officer and executive director.
Reuters reported the change is expected to be formalized at a board meeting Monday at the White House.
Trump wrote on Truth Social:
I am pleased to announce that Matt Floca, subject to the approval of the Board of Directors, will be named the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director, of THE TRUMP KENNEDY CENTER where, as Vice President of Operations, Matt has helped us achieve tremendous progress in bringing the Center to the highest level of Excellence!
A Complete Reconstruction of THE TRUMP KENNEDY CENTER will begin after the July 4th Celebration, with a scheduled Grand Re-Opening in approximately two years.
Ric Grenell has done an excellent job in helping to coordinate various elements of the Center during the transition period, and I want to thank him for the outstanding work he has done. THE TRUMP KENNEDY CENTER will be, at its completion, the finest facility of its kind anywhere in the World!
Grenell was brought in after Trump moved aggressively to shake up the Kennedy Center’s leadership, install allies on the board, and put the institution on a new ideological path. Trump had named Grenell to lead daily operations in February 2025, saying the longtime loyalist shared his vision for a “Golden Age” of American arts and culture and making clear that the era of taxpayer-subsidized woke programming was over.
The Gateway Pundit previously reported that Trump’s message at the time was unmistakable: no more drag shows and no more anti-American propaganda masquerading as art.
And Grenell wasted no time exposing what he said was a financial mess. As Gateway Pundit reported last year, Grenell revealed that the Kennedy Center had “zero cash on hand” and “zero in reserves,” while deferred maintenance had become a full-blown crisis.
He said staff had been relying on debt reserves just to keep the institution functioning, painting a picture of a once-prestigious cultural center hollowed out by years of mismanagement.
Months later, Gateway Pundit also highlighted Grenell’s claim that a budget review uncovered $26 million in what he described as “phantom revenue” or “fake revenue,” which he said would be referred to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Now Grenell is stepping aside after more than a year on the front lines of that battle.
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