And joining me now from Hermosa Beach, California for an exclusive interview is Richard Grinnell.

He's president of the newly renamed Trump Kennedy Center.

Last February, he was named interim president by the board that was appointed by President Trump.

Grinnell also served in Trump's first term, including as Ambassador to Germany, an acting director of National Intelligence.

Ambassador Grinnell, welcome to the NewsHour.

Thanks for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

I want to begin by just giving you the chance to respond to what you just heard there from Doug Verone,

from others in the piece reported by Jeff Brown, a number of artists who chose to cancel or pull out of performances,

citing both the President's takeover of

the Board and also the renaming of the Center.

What's your response?

Well, first of all, I would note that in the entire package and in the questions, there

wasn't a single question about the finances of what's going on.

And I've noticed at PBS, for instance, you all haven't covered any of the

finances in terms of the situation that the Kennedy Center has found itself. The Trump-Kennedy

Center is in a very different position than the previous center was. And I would say that we have a phenomenal situation

financially with the current Trump Kennedy Center because President Trump is a phenomenal

fundraiser. And what we've been able to do is look at ticket sales, donors, as well as corporate sponsors,

and come up with a holistic approach to how you look at the arts.

When I arrived at the Kennedy Center, the then Kennedy Center, we were paying staff with debt reserves. Now, I understand that there's a lot of reporters who don't understand finance

and who don't understand what paying for staff with debt reserves mean.

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