Richard Grenell on Cancel Culture, ‘Normal Gays’ and his friend Melania

The Conversation with Dasha Burns

POLITICO

Government, Politics, News

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Within the Trump administration, Richard Grenell is a jack of all trades. When he’s not acting in a diplomatic capacity as special presidential envoy, he’s also running one of DC’s most esteemed arts institutions, the Kennedy Center. “Everyone should be welcome. No one should be booed. No one should be banned,” Grenell tells Politico’s Dasha Burns in a wide-ranging interview in the Kennedy Center’s Grand Foyer. Grenell explains why he thinks “the intolerance is coming from the left,” and why “the gay community has to police itself” at Pride parades. Grenell also sheds light on the Trump administration’s talks with Russia, immigration enforcement, his potential run for California Governor, and his friendship with First Lady Melania Trump. Grenell also responds to reports that ticket sales and subscriptions have dropped at the Kennedy Center. Grenell calls those reports “wrong.” Read the statements from the Kennedy Center’s CFO here and its SVP of Marketing here. Plus, senior political reporter Melanie Mason joins Burns to talk about the immigration protests in Los Angeles and how California Governor Gavin Newsom is leading the fight against President Trump’s military intervention. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:31.3	Do you want a world where Les Mizz is interrupted by booze because somebody just feels like
0:36.4	that's their moment? I don't. There needs to be
0:38.4	some sort of decorum. And this is where conservatives don't do that. We don't interrupt the show.
0:46.3	Welcome to The Conversation. I'm Dasha Burns, White House Bureau Chief for Politico. Every week on this show,
0:52.9	I invite one of the most compelling political power
0:55.5	players in for a chat to find out how they're navigating and shaping this incredible era of
1:01.1	American politics. Today, I'm joined by Richard Grinnell, special envoy to President Trump.
1:07.1	Grinnell wears many hats in the Trump administration. When he's not acting in his capacity as a diplomat,
1:12.9	he's running the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.,
1:15.8	and doing, as he told us, whatever the president asks him to.
1:19.5	We spoke the morning after the center's opening night of Le Miserables,
1:23.2	where he sat next to Melania Trump, a close friend of his.
1:26.7	Our interview also took place a few hours
1:28.9	before Israel launched military strikes on Iran, and we talked about those rising tensions.
	...

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