UNCONFIRMED: the detention rests on Eugene Ramirez's own account to the Washington Blade; other reports restate it, and no independent outlet or official has confirmed it.
On March 31, 2026, President Trump and first lady Melania Trump attended the opening night of “Chicago” at the Kennedy Center. As they entered, some in the crowd booed, but they were drowned out by louder cheers, the Associated Press reported. Eugene Ramirez, a Washington resident and former lead anchor of Sinclair's national evening newscast, told the Washington Blade that he booed and gave a thumbs-down while recording on his iPhone, and that within moments the center's director of security and another guard escorted him to a side area where other guards were waiting. “I was detained until everyone was seated and the lights dimmed,” he said.
According to Ramirez, Kennedy Center Director of Safety and Security Karles C. Jackson Sr. told him “they don't want booing” and singled out his thumbs-down. “He never clarified who 'they' were,” Ramirez said. He said Jackson told him he was just trying to do his job, shook his hand and let him return to his seat as the overture began. He was not arrested or charged. Ramirez said there had been no disruption and that the episode felt like “an effort to control the narrative around the president.”
The account comes from Ramirez alone. The Kennedy Center did not respond to the Blade, and neither the center nor the White House responded to The Advocate; other coverage found restates the Blade's report. The venue is now chaired by Trump: the board he installed added his name to the institution, calling it the Trump Kennedy Center, in December 2025 and approved a two-year closure starting in July, and both moves face ongoing legal challenges, the AP reported.
Correction (October 2, 2026): The title previously said the Secret Service confiscated the journalist's phone and referred to the journalist as “her”; no source reports a Secret Service role or a phone confiscation, and Ramirez is a man. The entry also said the White House tried to suppress footage of the booing, which no source supports, and said the administration renamed the center, when the center's Trump-appointed board made the change. Those claims were corrected or removed, and the entry now makes clear that the detention account rests on Ramirez's own statements.