As President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump visited the opening performance of the musical Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday, June 11, they were met with a mixture of booing and acclaim from the audience.
In videos that were uploaded to X, it is possible to see that the president and the first lady were received by a variety of responses as they were leaving the building.
A number of other people, including Vice President J.D. Vance and his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, were present during the performance. During a previous performance at the same venue in March, the Vances attempted to sit on the balcony of the Kennedy Center in order to observe the National Symphony Orchestra. However, they were laughed at by the audience.
It was always anticipated that the cast of Les Mis would be somewhat different from what the majority of Kennedy Center guests would see throughout the show’s month-long run. The performance that took place on Wednesday was no exception.
According to a story that was published by CNN on May 7th, at least ten of the twelve performers present in the musical had no intention of performing on the night that the Trumps were there. Sources who talked with the site said that the cast was offered the choice to not perform, and a number of members of the ensemble as well as members of the main cast ultimately decided not to participate.
The demonstration took place when the president, only a few days into his second term as president, appointed himself as chairman of the Kennedy Center and removed the majority of the organization’s so-called “woke” leadership. In their stead, a new board of conservative allies was appointed to serve on the board.
Additionally, he named Richard Grenell, a member of his cabinet, to the position of president and temporary director of the Center respectively.
The Kennedy Center will no longer provide financial support for bigotry, Grenell said in a statement that was released at the time the protest was publicized. Any artist who is not sufficiently professional to be able to perform for customers from all walks of life, regardless of their political party, will not be invited.
He proceeded by saying, “In point of fact, we believe that it would be important to expose those artists who are intolerant and vapid in order to make sure that producers are aware of who they should not hire, and that the general public is aware of which shows have political litmus tests to sit in the audience.” “The Kennedy Center wants to be a place where people of all political stripes sit next to each other and never ask who someone voted for but instead enjoys a performance together.”
Throughout his career, President Trump has shown that he is a fan of the musical Les Mis. The protest song from the musical, “Do You Hear the People Sing?,” was sung by the United States Army Chorus at the 2025 White House Governors Ball in February.
In addition, he used the song in his presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2024. According to an article published by The Guardian in 2022, the politician “bizarrely” criticized the song before to launching his candidacy for president in 2024. Given that the words of the song are sung from the perspective of French revolutionaries who are fighting against a strong and corrupt ruling class, many people believe that the president’s appreciation for the song is an unusual choice.
Among the lyrics is the following: “Do you hear the people sing? Singing the song of furious men? What you are listening to is the song of the people, who will never again be slaves!
Following Trump’s usage of the song in 2016, the producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh and the co-creators of Les Mis issued a joint statement to voice their dissatisfaction of the fact that Trump was utilizing the musical to boost his political agenda.
“The authors of Les Misérables were not asked for permission and did not authorize or endorse usage of ‘Do You Hear the People Sing?’ at last week’s Trump rally in Miami, and they have never done so for any of the songs from the musical for this or any other political event,” they wrote, as reported by The Guardian. “Moreover, they have never done so for any of the songs from the musical for any other political event.”
Mackintosh continued with his statement, “As the musical’s popularity and universal message have been part of international popular culture for more than 30 years now, countless political and social movements around the world, including the first Bill Clinton and Obama campaigns, have independently embraced songs from the musical as a rallying cry for their own cause.”