Shonda Rhimes has stepped down as treasurer of the Kennedy Center just as Donald Trump named himself the chair of its board.
The Golden Globe-winning show creator and writer behind some of the biggest television hits of the last decade, including Bridgerton, Inventing Anna and Grey’s Anatomy, posted a headline with the news of her departure to Instagram on Wednesday.
She only provided a John F. Kennedy quote as an explanation: “If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.”
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She was joined by singer Ben Folds, who also stepped down as artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra on Wednesday.
Rhimes was one of many celebrities who lent their star power to Kamala Harris on the campaign trail against Trump’s second term, even campaigning for the former VP in Georgia. The cast of her popular political drama, Scandal, hit the trail for the Harris-Walz campaign in September. The TV industry heavyweight told the New York Times in October that she got involved in the campaign because “Donald Trump’s second term will be worse.”
Trump fired the Kennedy Center board last week and installed himself as chair in a vote he claimed was unanimous (reportedly, it was not). He never attended a Kennedy Center Honors ceremony during his first term in office, but has since claimed via Truth Social that the center needs an overhaul to prevent “drag shows” from “targeting our youth.”
Sources tell The Daily Beast’s “Swamp” newsletter that Trump’s usurping of the center has less to do with drag shows and more to do with payback for not accepting him. Trump removed David M. Rubenstein, the chair since 2010, and also tapped MAGA-loyalist Ric Grenell as executive director.
Last week, he terminated 18 Democratic appointees, including former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and longtime Joe Biden adviser Mike Donilo, in moves insiders say are unprecedented.
