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Former Kennedy Center curator says he believes "real reason" behind closure is "financial decline" 99%
4/21/2026, 12:10:50 AM
BS Summary: This video contains 33 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Appeal to Emotion, and Anecdotal, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 46.3% saturation with 362 hits. Analysis detected 2,396 faulty-reasoning hits from 782 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 98.2% and a BS Rank of 99% (326 of 16,813 videos). This video is worse (more manipulative) than 98.10% of the video peer group.
There's been a wave of changes to the Kennedy Center during President Trump's second term.
Shortly after returning to office, he ousted the institution's leadership and handpicked the cent's board of directors.
His name was added to the building's facade, and upon the president's request, the programming was changed.
This July, the center is shut down for two years for renovations.
In a recent article in The Atlantic, former Kennedy Center curator, who was laid off in March, is revealing more of what he observed during his 10 months there.
He says behind the scenes it was quote far worse than the public knows.
Polarmo is the author of that article and the former curator of visual arts
for the Kennedy Center and joins us now.
So Yseph, I need to start by saying you told the center early on you were never a Trump voter and you write you and your colleagues saw cronyism, incompetence, and a series of bizarre moves that would lead to the Kennedy Center going dark.
Why is that?
And why did you find it necessary to disclose your voting history?
Well, I wanted off the bat to let them know that um you know, if that's going to be a deal breaker for them, then you know, we could not pursue this.
Um uh and I was assured that it wasn't.
In fact, uh you know, Ambassador Grenell, Richard Grenell, who was the then uh president of the Kennedy Center,
actually wanted to make sure that not everybody was a MAGA loyalist to reflect his intention for this Kennedy Center to be a nonpartisan space for all Americans.
You write that you quickly became uncomfortable with some of the fundraising efforts you witnessed early on, artwork that was taken down, and we also know a lot of people who were set to perform dropped out.
What was the extent of all that?
>> It had wide reverberations um that ultimately I think led to the financial decline of the center um which I believe is the real reason why they're closing under the cover of renovations.
>> So you're saying the center didn't need this facelift now?
Objectively speaking, um there are some things that do need to be upgraded, renovated, repaired, but
they're primarily back of the house on the roof, um underneath the theaters where the production crews kind of go between the different theater spaces. Um
but nothing that would necessitate the full campus closure, including the Reach, which is the new extension to the campus that was opened in 2019.
That's not actually owned by the federal government.
That's owned by the Kennedy Center Trust, of which I was an employee.
It's an independent 501c3 that administers the programming and operations for the center.
>> Before I ask you your ultimate goal in speaking out, can you just give us an example of of maybe one or two really egregious things in your mind um that really sort of hone in for our viewers on what was bothering you?
Um, I think that for me just the just the way that they were raising money for the center um really centered around the proximity to Donald Trump.
Um, and you know, there were things like the late Miser Rob preview in which it was reported that tickets were going for $2 million to sit near the president in his box and to attend a VIP reception.
Um, I just found that to be incredibly egregious and and not at all how things are done in the nonprofit arts world for fundraising.
>> And you're right, there must be a firewall put in place by Congress to prevent this kind of hostile political takeover of the Kennedy Center from ever happening again.
Is that why you're you're talking to us now?
You wrote this. You're also participating in the investigation by Senator White House and you're in touch with Representative Batty's legal team for her lawsuit to to prevent the city cent's renaming.
>> That's correct. You know, this is the 250th anniversary of America, and I think this is a time for all of us to kind of re reset our our priorities when it comes to free speech and creative expression, free from any political interference, right or left.
Um, I think the Kennedy Center is an institution that should um outlast any political changes that happen, and we need to
enact this firewall through Congress uh to to make sure that this doesn't happen again.
>> Ysef Polmo, thank you for your time.
>> Thank you.
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