Two-time Academy Award winner Jane Fonda headlines the Artists United for Our Freedoms event outside the John F. Kennedy Center on Friday, March 27, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON – A number of celebrities outside the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts kicked off a weekend of protests Friday against President Donald Trump’s expansion of executive power and his administration’s pressure on free speech – from theater programs in the nation’s capital to late-night television.
More than a dozen activist artists and artists gathered for Artists United for Our Freedoms, an event organized by the advocacy group Committee for the First Amendment.
Participants who gave performances and speeches included anti-Vietnam War movement icons Jane Fonda and Joan Baez, actors Billy Porter and Sam Waterson, musicians Maggie Rogers, Crys Matthews and Kristy Lee, and authors Ann Patchett and Bess Kalb.
Speakers focused on what they described as Trump’s hostility to First Amendment principles, including the fact that the Federal Communications Commission pushed networks to take late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s show off the air. Speakers also said the government pressured CBS to take Stephen Colbert’s show off the air as a condition of approving a merger involving Paramount, CBS’ parent company.
Under Trump, the Defense Department also banned reporters it deemed unfriendly from the Pentagon’s media relations area. And the administration is battling The Associated Press in court for access to the White House after the news organization declined to exploit Trump’s preferred name, “Gulf of America,” for the Gulf of Mexico.
No Kings preview
The event took place a day before the third No Kings Day, a nationwide protest movement that has been ongoing attracted millions Many Americans took to the streets in October to demonstrate against a long list of Trump’s actions since the start of his second term.
Fonda, a senior member of the First Amendment Committee, encouraged the crowd to attend Saturday’s demonstrations.
“Tomorrow we will see a great example of community building – the No Kings protests. Don’t just go, bring five people,” Fonda said.
The actor and activist revived the committee at the end of 2025 along with hundreds of artists. Her actor father, Henry Fonda, founded the organization during the infamous “Red Scare” in the slow 1940s and 1950s in the United States.
At the time, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy was leading one campaign Defaming actors, musicians and other public figures based on their political leanings and spreading numerous false claims about communism.
Notable moments from Thursday’s event included Baez and Rogers performing Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin'” and Porter giving a dramatic reading of artist and athlete Paul Roberson’s 1956 testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
“It is time to break your silence and stand firm against the authoritarianism that is taking hold and consolidating very quickly. We know that when fear arises, silence spreads and we cannot allow that,” Fonda said.
“Although the war in Iran is not a focus of the First Amendment Committee, I will say that the First Amendment suffers greatly in times of war as the government works to suppress internal dissent,” Fonda added, alluding to the war that Trump launched with Israel just over a month ago.
Cuts at the Kennedy Center
The two-time Oscar winner also appealed to Kennedy Center employees in the crowd who learned of the layoffs on Friday. The Washington Post first reported The cultural center is laying off employees ahead of its two-year closure for renovations.
The iconic performing arts center, which now bears Trump’s name on its facade, will close on July 4 for renovations, the president said announced on his social media platform Truth Social in February.
Trump took over as CEO of the Kennedy Center shortly after taking office again in 2025.
Alabama country musician Kristy Lee told the crowd that she has withdrawn from performing at the Kennedy Center.
“I’m not going to lie, I was excited for the opportunity. But after what happened, playing in that center would cost me my integrity, and that’s worth more than any paycheck,” Lee said.
Media mergers
Several speakers criticized the government’s support for massive media mergers, including between Paramount Global and Skydance Media, owned by David Ellison, son of billionaire Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle and a major Republican Party donor who worked with Trump to acquire a immense stake in TikTok.
Paramount-Skydance is now on track to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which is currently owns CNN and HBO.
“The Trump regime has sought to suppress dissent and demonize the vulnerable in order to put the media in the hands of friendly oligarchs. These moves are straight from the authoritarian playbook,” said Jessica Gonzalez, co-CEO of Free Press, an advocacy group for media watchdogs.
Logan Keith, No Kings Day organizer and national communications coordinator for advocacy group 50501, told the crowd: “We come, we speak out, we refuse to be silent.”
“We will gather by the millions in cities large and small. … We will declare with one voice, ‘America has no kings’.”
In response to the rally, White House spokesman Davis Ingle said: “President Trump is about to make the Trump-Kennedy Center the best performing arts facility in the world, available to all Americans. Nobody cares what Jane Fonda has to say. Her horrific spectacle has traumatized people enough.”
