The esteemed bipartisan cultural institution has fallen into the hands of the returning president leading to chaos, confusion and a celebrity exodus

America’s biggest annual gathering of conservatives had just got under way near Washington when its organiser, Matt Schlapp, turned to Ric Grenell and quipped: “My daughters want tickets to all the good Kennedy Center shows.”

Grenell, a former acting director of national intelligence, was recently named by Donald Trump as interim president of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. He told the Conservative Political Action Conferenc last week that his vision for the centre is “to make art great again”, including “a big, huge celebration of the birth of Christ at Christmas”.