The Washington National Opera on Friday announced it is parting ways with the Kennedy Center after more than a decade with the arts institution.

“Today, the Washington National Opera announced its decision to seek an amicable early termination of its affiliation agreement with the Kennedy Center and resume operations as a fully independent nonprofit entity,” the opera said in a statement.

The decoupling marks another high-profile withdrawal since President Donald Trump and his newly installed board of trustees instituted broad thematic and cosmetic changes to the building, including renaming the facility “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

The opera said it plans to “reduce its spring season and relocate performances to new venues.”

A source familiar with the dynamic told CNN the decision to part ways was made by the opera’s board and its leadership, and that the decision was not mutual.

A spokesperson for the Kennedy Center said in a statement, “After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to part ways with the WNO due to a financially challenging relationship. We believe this represents the best path forward for both organizations and enables us to make responsible choices that support the financial stability and long-term future of the Trump Kennedy Center.”

Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell, who was appointed by Trump’s hand-picked board, said on X, “Having an exclusive relationship has been extremely expensive and limiting in choice and variety.”

Grenell added, “Having an exclusive Opera was just not financially smart. And our patrons clearly wanted a refresh.”

Since taking the reins at the center, Grenell has cut existing staff, hired political allies and mandated a “break-even policy” for every performance.

The opera said the new policy was a factor in its decision to leave the center.

“The Center’s new business model requires productions to be fully funded in advance—a requirement incompatible with opera operations,” the opera said.

Francesca Zambello, the opera’s artistic director, said she is “deeply saddened to leave The Kennedy Center.”

“In the coming years, as we explore new venues and new ways of performing, WNO remains committed to its mission and artistic vision,” she said.

The New York Times first reported the opera’s departure.

Founded in 1956 as the “Opera Society of Washington,” the group has performed across the district, taking permanent residency in the Kennedy Center in 2011.

The performing arts center has been hit with a string of abrupt cancellations from artists in recent weeks including the jazz group The Cookers and New York City-based dance company Doug Varone and Dancers who canceled their performances after Trump’s name was added to the center – a living memorial for assassinated President John F. Kennedy.

The American College Theater Festival voted to suspend its relationship with the Kennedy Center, calling the affiliation “no longer viable” and citing concerns over a misalignment of the group’s values.

American banjo player Béla Fleck withdrew his upcoming performance with the National Symphony Orchestra, saying that performing at the center has become “charged and political.”

The Brentano String Quartet, who canceled their February 1 performance at the Kennedy Center, said they will “regretfully forego performing there.”

CNN has reached out to the Kennedy Center on the additional cancellations.

The opera said, “The Board and management of the company wish the Center well in its own future endeavors.”

CNN’s Betsy Klein and Nicky Robertson contributed to this report.

Wyoming businessman Reid Rasner formally launched a bid for Congress this week. It’s his second bid for public office.

Rasner, a fourth-generation Wyoming native and Omnivest Financial CEO, previously wanted to buy TikTok when it was up for sale and to bring the headquarters to the Mountain West.

“I’m a Wyoming businessman. I’m not a career politician,” Rasner said in an interview with the Deseret News. “Why I’m running is because Washington wastes money, drives up costs for families and businesses, and Wyoming truly deserves representation that knows how to cut waste and grow an economy.”

Rasner is set to face off against Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray in the Republican primary.

Current Rep. Harriet Hageman announced she run for the Senate with hopes of replacing Sen. Cynthia Lummis, who is retiring.

President Donald Trump gave Hageman his “Complete and Total Endorsement,” something Rasner is also looking to earn, calling himself a “100% Trump Conservative Republican.”

Asked how he feels competing against someone already holding a statewide position like Gray, Rasner said the race isn’t about “politics or personality,” but rather about results. He highlighted his long history of being a successful businessman based out of Wyoming, beginning when he bought his first company at 18 years old.

Rasner put forward a hefty bid to buy TikTok when it was up for sale, as it was required by U.S. law for ByteDance to divest from the popular social media app. After months of delay, and Trump extending the deadline several times, Rasner said he knew the chances of being the app’s owner were dwindling.

“When we realized that TikTok was unwilling to sell the algorithm, we knew that we just couldn’t make a deal, because that’s what the bulk of our bid was … preserving the algorithm for American sovereignty,” he said.

With that tech opportunity for Wyoming gone, Rasner said he hopes to be elected to Congress as the state’s lone member of the House to bring a different kind of economic change to the state.

“Wyoming needs a do-er, not another politician, and someone that knows how to run and operate businesses and budgets and can actually get this done and make life more affordable for Wyoming, and deregulate industries, bringing in really good businesses and business opportunities in Wyoming, like TikTok, like our nuclear opportunities that we have recently lost in Wyoming,” he said. “I want to create a fourth legacy industry in the state revolving around finance and technology and I think this is so important to stabilize our economy.”

Rasner put $1 million of his own money toward his campaign, and now, he said, outside donations are coming in.

It’s his second political campaign, after previously challenging Sen. John Barrasso in the 2024 Republican primary. He said this time around, he’s hired FP1 Strategies and a “solid team.” He has a campaign that is “fully funded” and he is going to continue to fundraise, Rasner said.

Rasner shared that if elected he’d be enthusiastic about being on the energy, agriculture and finance committees in the House. They are some of the strongest committees for Wyoming, he said.

“I’m running to take Wyoming business sense to Washington, D.C., and make Wyoming affordable again, and make Wyoming wealthy,” he said. “It’s so important that we get business leadership and someone who knows what they’re doing outside of politics in the real world to deliver that message in Washington.”

Influencer Trisha Paytas released multiple videos over the past week noting that she is considering a run for the U.S. Congress in California.

Paytas, known for flamboyant and zany content, said in a video filmed in her car, “I don’t mean it as a joke, and I know it sounds so crazy, like to me too, but I think it’s so doable,” she said. “I really would love to run for House of Representatives. Here in California, we have 52, and I would really love to run.”

She went on to note, “They have an election this year, Nov. 3, 2026, and I do have some bills I would like to present to Congress. So I’m working on that. I really want to be able to, like, truly make a difference, because I see so much horrible stuff happening in the world and right here in California as well, and I’m like, ‘Oh, there’s nothing I can do.’ No — there’s something I can do. I can run. I can run for office. And I wholeheartedly really want to give my all for that.”

People magazine reported that she revealed her political slogan, “California could be good,” commenting, “Just need to figure out a better system for everyone and everything.”

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In the podcast episode she had filmed that day, she said one of her policies would be requiring people to be 25 years old before they can do adult film/sex work like OnlyFans. She also knocked the “old men and old women” who currently serve in politics, saying they prioritize issues such as, “like, starting wars and stuff.”

In a follow-up podcast on Thursday, she noted that she has seen some outrage about the prospect of her running for Congress, but will consider the run anyway.

“Y’all, I’m scared, the Congress thing went to the wrong side of the internet. I need to just wait a minute,” she said. “[I] loved it and then got scared.”

Even so, she said that she is still in the exploratory phase of seeking out information to test the waters before launching an official bid. Failing that, she noted that she might also consider other avenues of political change. 

“Still wanna make a difference, trying to figure out a way to do it without people just coming for me,” she said. 

“Let’s put a pin for now. We don’t have much time. I’ll decide in the next few weeks because we have until like Feb. 9, I guess, to just start getting those votes, or at least signatures,” she said. 

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According to People magazine, Paytas has a politically mercurial past. “In 2012, she threw her support behind the Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, posting a since-deleted video to her YouTube channel where she called him ‘super hot.’ She shared her support for Donald Trump in 2016 — but later released a since-deleted video in 2019 titled ‘I do NOT support Trump’ in which she admitted she had ‘never voted’ and knew ‘literally nothing’ about politics.”

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