Richard Grenell is the man who has been charged by President Donald Trump with taking the wokeness out of the Kennedy Center and making it wholesome. So why is he firing a person for adhering to the biblical definition of sexuality?
Grenell served in the previous Trump administration and became one of those Republicans the media either hated to love or loved to hate; while his personal positions were generally conservative in nature, he was the first openly identifying gay man in a presidential cabinet when he became Trump’s acting director of national intelligence in 2020. He made the kind of history they usually adore, just with a president they couldn’t stand and views that they generally viewed with fear and loathing.
It wasn’t a question of whether Grenell would get a position in the new Trump administration — he’d also served as ambassador to Germany and special envoy for peace between Kosovo and Serbia during the first Trump term and has stayed active in GOP politics — but which position. And while hiring an LGBT individual with a male partner to root out wokeness in one of the most rotten institutions in all of the District of Columbia might be seen as a chancy move, early returns had been positive, as those following the Kennedy Center drama have no doubt heard. The Washington elite were angry, so angry that they devolved into interpretive dance protests like this one:
???? #BREAKING: The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC has just been evacuated due to a B0MB THREAT
Leftists have been throwing a FIT at the Kennedy Center since Trump banned drag shows targeted at children and made himself Chair
These people are DERANGED.
This comes just after… pic.twitter.com/qBYHWB2stp
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) February 20, 2025
That hasn’t stopped the Kennedy Center from tossing out much of the woke programming and bringing back classical music, not drag shows for kids.
4/ Trump on Truth Social:
“The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel… It must reflect the brightest STARS from across our Nation.”
No more drag shows for kids. No more Woke garbage. Just REAL art, REAL culture, and RESPECT for our traditions. pic.twitter.com/xL6YAckcHI
— Rod D. Martin (@RodDMartin) April 26, 2025
He also hired Floyd Brown, an outspoken Christian conservative who’s been in the movement for decades, as vice president. And then he fired Brown, because apparently he thinks supporting traditional marriage is a good thing and CNN was about to report on this, and Grenell was unhappy because he’s partnered with a man.
Now, time for a huge dose of full disclosure here: Brown is, among many other things, the founder of The Western Journal. He’s also the father of the current CEO and owner of The Western Journal, Patrick Brown.
I will also say that, while Brown’s presence and leadership has greatly influenced all of us who write for The Western Journal, my most personal one-on-one interaction with him — being a freelance writer here — was when, during a visit to headquarters once, he offered me donuts, having picked up a few extra on the way into the office. (Krispy Kreme, so needless to say, I accepted.)
That being said, knowing him through internal communications and other people, I’ve also known him to be a man who doesn’t shy away from sharing the truth, even if he thinks you find it uncomfortable. I’ve been with The Western Journal for quite some time, and even though Brown’s publicly stated version of events is mostly what I’m going on here, he’s never given me any reason to doubt that. As anybody who has worked downstream from anyone in politics or political media will tell you, no matter how much interaction you have with them, saying that is avouching for a heck of a lot in terms of character — no matter what flavor of donuts they were. (Basic glazed, in case you were wondering — which, to me, is the only reason to go to Krispy Kreme in the first place.)
It’s also worth noting that, given the liberal media’s three-decade-plus beef with Floyd, they could have based this off of literally anything. Floyd isn’t shy about his opinions, and they don’t comport with the mainstream media’s narrative. That beef stretches all the way back to his part in producing the Willie Horton ad in 1988, which helped sink Michael Dukakis’ presidential campaign.
He was also founder of Citizens United, the group that was the plaintiff in what was the left’s most hated Supreme Court decision until Dobbs, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, in which a bill that prohibited independent entities from spending money to endorse or defeat a candidate was struck down on First Amendment grounds.
Instead, CNN apparently decided to take issue with a 2023 speech he gave to a Christian audience in which he noted that GOP lawmakers were often loath to tackle issues regarding homosexuality because many of their staffers were homosexual, which he attributed to a willingness to work longer hours. The reason? You’ll never believe this: People who marry and procreate often have — gasp! — more responsibilities than people who don’t.
“So when I was on Capitol Hill, I worked in Republican staff,” Brown said during the speech.
“What most people don’t understand is that many of the Republican members have homosexual staff. And the reason that they do is because the homosexuals usually, unlike me — I had two kids at home, I had a wife at home, I had responsibilities at home, and I needed to spend time with my children — and they don’t.
“They didn’t. They literally worked for the member 24/7 and then went out to Adams Morgan and had their gay sex and then came back to work the next day,” he said, referencing the most gay-friendly neighborhood in the nation’s capital.
He noted that then-President George W. Bush appointed Ken Mehlman, who he called “openly homosexual,” to the head of the Republican National Committee. (While Mehlman’s term at the RNC lasted between 2005 to 2007 and he only announced he was a homosexual publicly in 2010, this was apparently an open secret on Capitol Hill.)
“They went through the RNC and systematically filled it with homosexual staff,” Brown continued. “And that’s why we never make any progress on family issues, you know. Activists at the local level, we wonder, ‘Why aren’t our Republican members of Congress fighting for traditional marriage?’ Well, because they’ve got three staff members who are against it, and that impacts them, and it’s a dirty little secret that nobody wants to share.”
This is the speech that triggered it all. @floydbrown told us exclusively that he was fired for these 2023 remarks at a Christian event.
He described GOP hypocrisy—how pro-family policies are blocked by staffers hostile to Biblical marriage.
4/16 pic.twitter.com/ilbgkaUiKI
— Next News Network ???????? (@NextNewsNetwork) May 30, 2025
Well, Brown is no longer with the Kennedy Center, saying he was fired due to the CNN report and Grenell being uncomfortable with that statement. As for the veracity of this, what we can tell you is that CNN claimed its scalp, posting a K-File video article called “Anti-Gay, Conspiracy Theorist Fired From Kennedy Center.”
(It’s rich that CNN not only doesn’t know what the comma is for but apparently calls people “conspiracy theorist[s]” after gainfully employing a man who once suggested Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was sucked into a black hole and only firing him once he became an insufferable drama magnet almost a decade later.)
In an X post, Brown said his “firing came approximately two hours after @CNN sent an email asking me to comment on my past writings and statements about traditional marriage and homosexual influence in the @GOP.”
The post, written last Thursday, also contained his response to CNN: “Comments rooted in my personal Christian views, which I have made in the past, have no impact upon my work here at the Kennedy Center nor do they impinge on my interactions with colleagues who do incredible work for the patrons of the Center. As a Christian I am called to work with others of different beliefs and worldviews. … It was truly not my intention to offend anyone with my comments. I have never intended to attack or demean any person in my statements, and have always shared the mission of Jesus, striving to love others unconditionally.
“The amazing beauty of the MAGA movement is we have people of many different beliefs inside our tent. We are all working together in unity to Make America Great Again.”
I was fired yesterday by @RichardGrenell from the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. One month ago, I was recruited to join the Kennedy Center as a Vice President. My firing came approximately two hours after @CNN sent an email asking me to comment on my past…
— Floyd Brown (@floydbrown) May 29, 2025
As for the reason for the firing?
CNN also contacted @RichardGrenell, who is a professing Christian and is married to a male spouse. As anyone that has followed my x account knows, I am also a professing Christian …
I asked for an explanation of my dismissal, and I asked to speak to @RichardGrenell — Both of those requests have been ignored.
The only explanation is the one given to me at the time of my firing. “Floyd, you must recant your belief in traditional marriage and your past statements on the topic, or you will be fired.” Needless to say, I refused to recant and was shown the door. My beliefs are much more common to Biblical Christianity.
My only conclusion is @RichardGrenell was intimidated by a @CNN story, which hasn’t been aired or published, so he preemptively fired me for my Christian beliefs on marriage.
This certainly doesn’t sound like the most implausible explanation here: Grenell may be rooting out wokeness, but he’s also rooting out people whose views do not comport with his on biblical sexuality — even if he’s working alongside them to pursue the MAGA agenda and they’re effective. Grenell is not addressing this publicly, at least as of Wednesday morning.
In a longer piece from his video podcast, Gary Franchi of Next News Network said, this was “not just about Floyd Brown, but whether Christians have a place in Trump’s America.”
SHOCKING VIDEO: Gary Franchi Gives Exclusive Information on Kennedy Center Ric Grenell Firing of Top Official Because He Won’t Disavow His Christian Traditional Marriage Views:
pic.twitter.com/DkUb3FjR35— MAGA Resource (@MAGAResource) May 30, 2025
Which is not an inaccurate way to sum up the takeaway here.
At least in terms of what is happening at the Kennedy Center, I cannot be more supportive of what is being done for public consumption. Behind the scenes, I’m considerably less reassured — and not just because I once got donuts from Floyd Brown.
No matter what Floyd Brown’s opinions on homosexuality or biblical marriage are, he was willing to take a role at the Kennedy Center with Richard Grenell at the helm, knowing full well what his proclivities are. Grenell, unless he or his staff didn’t bother Googling Brown’s name before approving the hiring, had more than a vague idea of who he was taking on. But once CNN starts poking around about those beliefs, he’s more tied to protecting his identity than to protecting the mission of the Trump administration and the Kennedy Center.
I’m willing to admit there’s potentially something here we don’t know about. Absent any statement from Grenell in the days after this story broke, I somehow doubt it, however. For defending the most wholesome institution in creation — marriage and the family, as prescribed by God — at a Christian event, Brown was kicked to the curb. Questions must be asked, and answers must be given.
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