Ric Grenell Blasts ‘Sick and Manipulative’ CNN for Fake ‘Les Misérables’ Cast Will ‘Boycott’ Trump Report

Former Amb. Ric Grenell, head of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, called CNN “sick and manipulative” for falsely reporting that the cast of Les Misérables would be boycotting the show’s opening night with President Donald Trump in the audience.

Citing anonymous sources, CNN reported on May 7, “At least 10 to 12 performers in Les Mis are planning to sit out the show on June 11, the night that Trump attends at the Kennedy Center… The cast was given the option to not perform the night Trump will be in the audience, and both major cast members and members of the ensemble are among those sitting out.”

Grenell reacted to the report shortly after it dropped in a statement to Entertainment Weekly, saying “Any performer who isn’t professional enough to perform for patrons of all backgrounds, regardless of political affiliation, won’t be welcomed.”

“In fact, we think it would be important to out those vapid and intolerant artists to ensure producers know who they shouldn’t hire — and that the public knows which shows have political litmus tests to sit in the audience,” he added.

Speaking to reporters on the red carpet at the Washington, DC venue just before the performance began on Wednesday evening, Grenell brushed off the reports of an impending boycott:

The musical ended up having a sold-out show, attended by the president, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Second Lady Usha Vance, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Health and Human Services (HHS) Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr, and other members of Trump’s inner circle and the Kennedy Center board:

Despite the CNN article — which was cited in several other news outlets reporting of an impending boycott — no such demonstration took place.

“Weeks ago, CNN had multiple anonymous sources who said the cast of Les Mis would absolutely boycott the opening at the @kencen and shut down the show,” Grenell wrote in a late Wednesday night post, following the show:

“Most every news outlet in the U.S. simply repeated the same anonymously sourced item. No outlet did original reporting. It was repeat and retweet. The story was fake news. I knew it at the time but wanted to wait to prove it to the world,” the Kennedy Center president continued. 

He added, “Do you think @cnn will apologize, correct the record or learn from their mistakes? Nope. They aren’t interested [in] accuracy – they are about attention and clicks.”

“It’s sick and manipulative and immoral.”

CNN did not retract their original report in its article on the show published Thursday morning, simply saying “it was not immediately clear how many cast members followed through on those plans.”

Trump said he would be unbothered if the boycott ended up taking place, telling reporters on the red carpet, “I couldn’t care less, honestly I couldn’t… All I do is run the country – well.”

Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.