The board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted Wednesday to appoint President Donald Trump as its chairman in an unprecedented move days after Trump announced the Washington, D.C., arts center would be his latest target in his war against “woke culture.”
President Donald Trump speaks after Tulsi Gabbard was sworn in as Director of National Intelligence ... [+]
The board installed Trump after the president announced last week his intent to become chair and make significant changes at the center, including to “immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees,” he wrote Friday on Truth Social.
Trump—who has never been to the Kennedy Center—said in the post that its existing chair, billionaire founder of the Carlyle Group David Rubenstein, did “not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” noting the center held drag shows “targeting our youth.”
Trump subsequently fired multiple board members appointed by President Joe Biden, including former Secretary of State Antony Blinken and former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
He also named ally and former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell as interim executive director, a position that did not previously exist.
Trump told reporters Monday his administration “took over the Kennedy Center” because “we didn’t like what they were showing and various other things,” adding “we have, I guess, a whole new group of people going in . . . and we’re going to make sure that it’s good and it’s not going to be woke.” On Sunday, he told reporters “some of the shows were terrible” and “a disgrace,” though he has not specified other issues with the programming, or what shows he’d like to see put on there. Trump said he’s never been to the center and “didn’t want to go” because “there was nothing [he] wanted to see.”
He and First Lady Melania Trump broke precedent set by his predecessors and skipped the Kennedy Center Honors during his first three years in office (the 2020 ceremony was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic). In 2017, three honorees—Norman Lear, Lionel Richie and Carmen de Lavallade—threatened to boycott the event if Trump were to attend.
Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter told staff in an email Friday “there is nothing in the Center’s statute that would prevent a new administration from replacing board members; however, this would be the first time such an action has been taken within the Kennedy Center’s board,” according to The Washington Post.
Trump has veto power over decisions made by the Kennedy Center board. The board—whose 36 members are appointed by the president to six-year terms—oversees the administration of federal funds for the “operation, maintenance, and capital repair of the presidential memorial as well as its trust-funded artistic programming,” according to the Kennedy Center’s 2025 fiscal year budget justification to Congress. Along with previous recipients of Kennedy Center Honors, the board also selects new honorees each year.
In addition to Jean-Pierre and Blinken, former White House Cabinet secretary Evan Ryan, musician Jon Batiste and event planner Bryan Rafanelli were terminated, The Washington Post reported.
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles; White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino; Second Lady Usha Vance; White House Presidential Personnel Office Director Sergio Gor; Allison Lutnick, the wife of Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick; and Emilia Fanjul, wife of sugar magnate and Trump donor Jose Fanjul, CBS reported, citing an unnamed source.
Congress and former President Dwight Eisenhower approved the project, with federal funding, in 1958, and it opened to the public in 1971. More than 2 million people visit the Kennedy Center each year and it holds about 2,000 performances. The center also bestows the Kennedy Center Honors each year to five artists or groups of artists for their lifetime contributions to the performing arts.
The federal government funded about $45 million of its roughly $268 million 2024 operating budget, according to The Washington Post. Private donations account for about $95 million of its budget and revenue covered about $125 million.
New Kennedy Center board elects Trump as chair. Rutter departs as president. (Washington Post)
Trump says he will fire Kennedy Center board members, appoint himself chairman (Washington Post)
Trump Names Loyalist Interim Leader of Kennedy Center as He Strengthens His Grip (New York Times)