Trump's disgraced Kennedy Center chief makes embarrassing admission

President of the Kennedy Center Richard Grenell poses on the red carpet for the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., U.S., December 7, 2025. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

A man who left President Donald Trump's Kennedy Center under a cloud of controversy, Richard Grenell, has suffered another public embarrassment after admitting that he lost another Trump administration job — and not even recently.

"A high-profile 'special envoy' for Donald Trump has admitted to the Daily Beast that his role secretly ended months ago," reported The Daily Beast's Julia Ornedo on Monday. "Ric Grenell, 60, is no longer the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions, he told the Daily Beast on Monday. A State Department official also confirmed that he is no longer employed by the agency."

Ornedo added, "Grenell said that his time had ended in February of this year and claimed his appointment as special envoy was always meant to expire when it did. The Daily Beast could find no previous public statement giving such an expiry date."

The journalist continued, "Grenell, a prolific social media poster, had never acknowledged the end of his role until now—when he finds himself in the middle of a growing scandal over allegations that cash vanished from a donation to the Kennedy Center, which he also ran under Trump."

Grenell actually left his position as President and Executive Director of the Kennedy Center after his foreign policy stint ended. Grenell left the Kennedy Center amidst a Trump-ordered investigation into whether Grenell had misused millions of donation dollars to the performing arts center during his tenure. He also struggled as Kennedy Center head to improve ticket sales, which flagged once Trump took over the center and tried to name it after himself.

He reported exploded after The Athletic reported on those lagging sales, disputing claims that they had seen a 50 percent drop and that FIFA was "paying the Kennedy Center more than $7 million to do their world-wide event FIFA draw" through various "sponsorship opportunities" and a $2.4 million donation.

"The bloggers quoted a failed dance programmer who wasn’t able to pay for the ideas she came up with at the KC - and who traveled the world watching other dance programs - expecting her salary and travel expenses to still be paid by someone," Grenell claimed. "We fired her for being unable to lead with fiscal responsibility. What these far left radical reporters never grasp is how responsible leaders must pay the bills."

The longtime politician and Republican insider, who also served as Trump's ambassador to Germany during his first term, has suffered other recent embarrassments in his career with Trump. Even though Grenell is reported to have advised against the decision, Trump chose Katherine Zacharia to be his press secretary. Zacharia was later forced to resign after her sole press conference performance was widely panned as amateurish and it came out she misled the public about going to law school.

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