President Trump was booed late Wednesday at the Kennedy Center’s glitzy opening night performance of “Les Miserables,” although he also received some cheers.
As they took their seats, the president and First Lady Melania Trump got the mixed reaction from the audience, some of whom wanted to make their feelings known about his effort to reshape the performing arts institution to suit his his right-wing politics.
Near the end of the intermission, an audience member loudly cursed Trump’s name, an outburst that drew applause from the packed house.
Several drag queens attended in protest against Trump’s complaints that the Kennedy Center had hosted too many shows featuring cross-dressing in the past.
Trump shrugged off any controversy as he walked in on the red carpet with the first lady.
“We want to bring it back, and we want to bring it back better than ever,” Trump said.
Several other MAGA loyalists attended the show including Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha. along with Attorney General Pam Bondi, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Laura Loomer, the conspiracy theorist who sometimes advises Trump.
For Trump’s critics, “Les Mis,” which is set amid revolutionary 19th century France, is a tone deaf choice given his right-wing policies and the tumult on the streets of Los Angeles, where Trump has deployed troops to quell protests over his anti-immigration policies.
“Someone explain the plot to him,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, tweeted.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump stunned the arts world by firing the Kennedy Center’s longtime director and board and replacing them with loyalists, who then named him as chairman.
