Amidst the 26 recent cancellations of events by performers in the wake of President Trump's appointing himself as chairman, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC is now trying to explain the sudden lack of programming.

Per Rolling Stone, the Center published the full list of cancelled acts "in the spirit of transparency and due to a litany of misinformation being spread in the press," said their Vice President of Public Relations, Roma Daravi. Since President Trump tapped himself as Chairman in mid-February, the cancellations "were due to lack of sales or artist availability,” according to Daravi, Rolling Stone writes.

"The list of 26 events that have been canceled or postponed includes 15 that the artist or producer canceled for reasons unrelated to illness, availability, sales, or finances," Rolling Stone reported.

President Trump took over the Kennedy Center on February 7. He wrote on his social media website, Truth Social, that he intended to make the performing arts center "great AGAIN," lumping it into his greater "anti-woke" agenda that targets mainly academia, the arts, and the humanities. "I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture." He announced himself as chairman of "The American Jewel," claiming his inspiration was to end the scheduling of drag shows "specifically targeting our youth."

That day, he fired the Center's president Deborah Rutter, the Chairman of the Board David Rubenstein, and numerous other Kennedy Center board members. He also cancelled several events that didn't align with his administration's values.

Comedian Issa Rae cancelled her Evening with Issa Rae show at the Kennedy Center on February 14, citing "“an infringement on the values of an institution that has faithfully celebrated artists of all backgrounds through all mediums,” per a statement printing in Rolling Stone. Ben Folds and Renée Fleming also pulled their upcoming performances for similar reasons.

Hamilton's producer Jeffery Seller announced on Monday that the show would not return for its residency in March and April. "In recent weeks we have sadly seen decades of Kennedy Center neutrality be destroyed," he wrote in a statement published on the Broadway show's official X (formerly Twitter) account. "The recent purge by the Trump Administration of both professional staff and performing arts events at or originally produced by the Kennedy Center flies in the face of everything this national cultural center represents."

Canadian singer Amanda Rheaume cancelled her April 5 concert on February 25. She told the Toronto Star that accepting the gig was, at first, a "career-building decision," but she was sorely disappointed with President Trump's takeover. "We don’t have the same politics and values, let’s put it that way… I’m a queer, Métis person...(Trump’s) already proven in so many overt and covert ways that I’m sure he wouldn’t be receptive,” she said to the Star.

Other cancelled performances mentioned in the Center's recently published list include those by Balún and Low Cut Connie, who also pulled their shows for political differences, the National Youth Poet Laureate commemoration, the annual Blacks in Wax performance, a screening of the Blackfeet Reservation documentary Bring Them Home, and more.