New Year's Eve act at Kennedy Centre becomes latest boycott after Trump added to venue's name
Multiple artists have pulled their shows from the Kennedy Centre after Donald Trump was controversially added to the venue's name.
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A veteran jazz ensemble which was slated to perform on New Year's Eve at the DC venue announced on Tuesday that they were cancelling the appearances.
The Cookers said in a statement: "Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice. Some of us have been making this music for many decades, and that history still shapes us".
A separate Christmas Eve jazz concert was cancelled last week, with the show's host Chuck Redd saying it was down to the name change.
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The New York Times has reported that Doug Varone and Dancers, a NY-based company, had also pulled out of its April shows at the centre.
The board of the performing arts centre voted earlier this month to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Centre.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the vote on social media, saying it was because of the "unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building. Not only from the standpoint of its reconstruction, but also financially, and its reputation".
Mr Trump, who is chairman of the board, often refers to the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which is named after a Democratic predecessor, as the "Trump Kennedy Center".
Asked on December 7 as he walked the red carpet for the Kennedy Center Honours programme whether he would rename the venue after himself, Mr Trump said such a decision would be up to the board.
Earlier this month, the president talked about a "big event on Friday at the Trump Kennedy Center" before saying, "excuse me, at the Kennedy Center", as his audience laughed.