This is startling.
Trump toadie Richard Grenell, now running the Kennedy Center into the ground, has been elected to Live Nation’s board of directors.
Under Grenell the Kennedy Center has lost dozens of bookings from artists who will not appear there. Maybe he thinks Live Nation will supply him with acts.
Even if that were the case, they won’t be the type Grenell pines for. Rock stars are not going to start lining up to perform at the Kennedy Center while it’s run Grenell and Trump.
The kind that will are already available to Grenell — Christian acts, right wing country stars, Kid Rock. Otherwise, it won’t be happening.
What does Live Nation get out of this? Access to Trump, breaks in various legal entanglements hanging over the company’s head.
A year ago, the Department of Justice sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster, which it owns, for monopolizing the live concert industry.
With Grenell on board, Live Nation has a chance of escaping from the complex lawsuit. What else would be doing there? He’s now the only member of the Live Nation board without any cred in the show biz world.
I don’t know the merits of the DoJ’s case, but it was filed under Merrick Garland. Under Pam Bondi it’s only a matter of time before they announce that the Live Nation command of the concert business is just good business. Case dismissed.
The Trump administration will be remembered for a lot of terrible things. But chief among them will be all the corporations, not just Live Nation, that bought protection insurance against Trump reprisals and offered influence in their companies to keep the criminal government on their side.
Grenell, meanwhile, is collecting money for Trump’s June 11th fundraiser at the Kennedy Center. This is the one where members of the “Les Miserables” cast have refused to perform on that night.
Guests who want to buy tickets to the gala — which run from $100,000 to $2 million — are wondering about the name on RSVP.
That would be someone new to the Kennedy Center named Joe La Fauci. Last summer, Grenell endorsed La Fauci in his winning bid to be Republican State Committeeman in Palm Beach County, Florida. La Fauci says on his website he launched the Palm Beach County chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans.
What’s actually going? Nothing good, that’s for sure.
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