Trump Sacks Kennedy Center Board, Names Himself Chairman

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday night sacked the leadership of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and installed himself as the institution’s new chairman.

Trump’s plan to overhaul the national cultural center’s board was first tipped by The Atlantic, which suggested that several recent appointees of former President Joe Biden were likely to be among those being dismissed.

They include former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Democratic political strategist Mike Donilon, and Democratic National Committee finance chair Chris Korge.

Trump confirmed his plans Friday in a Truth Social post, evidently written while he was en route to Florida aboard Air Force One.

“At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN,” the president wrote. “I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.”

“We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!” he continued.

The board’s current chairman, David Rubenstein, was scheduled to hold the position through 2026.

But in his post, Trump expressed displeasure with some of the programming under Rubenstein’s watch.

“Just last year,” the president wrote, “the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP. 

“The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation. For the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!” Trump said.

Controversy is no stranger to The Kennedy Center.

In fact, arguments over everything from how the cultural center would be funded to its location in Foggy Bottom, delayed its opening for almost four decades.

It was then-First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt who in 1933 first broached the idea of creating such a center under the auspices of the Emergency Relief and Civil Works Administration to provide jobs for unemployed actors during the Great Depression.

Several bills were proposed on Capitol Hill over the years to make Roosevelt’s suggestion a reality, but it wasn’t until the summer of 1958 that Congress could actually agree on a measure that could pass.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Cultural Center Act into law the following September, but even then, challenges remained.

The law was the first in U.S. history to guarantee the federal government would help finance a performing arts center, but it also required that a significant portion of the costs be covered by private funding, to be raised within five years of the bill’s passage.

As a result, it wasn’t until Dec. 2, 1964, that President Lyndon B. Johnson dug the ceremonial first-shovel of dirt at the ground-breaking for the facility which was now to be named for John F. Kennedy in the wake of his assassination.

Even then, disagreements over the center’s location continued, with a number of powerful voices advocating for a location on Pennsylvania Avenue. As a result, the center’s eventual site wasn’t actually cleared until January 1967.

The first performance at the Kennedy Center was on Sept. 5, 1971, with 2200 members of the general public in attendance to see a premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass” in the Center’s Opera House.

The Center’s “official” opening followed three days later, on Sept. 8, 1971, with a formal gala and a second performance of the Bernstein “Mass.”

Since then, the Center, whose programming is sustained through private funds, has played host to almost every genre of performance art, from theater, dance and classical music to jazz, rock and roll and comedy.

It is also the official residence of the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera.

In a lengthy written statement, the Kennedy Center responded.

“Throughout our history, the Kennedy Center has enjoyed strong support from members of congress and their staffs — Republicans, Democrats, and Independents,” the statement said. “Since our doors opened in1971, we have had a collaborative relationship with every presidential administration. Since that time, the Kennedy Center has had a bi-partisan board of trustees that has supported the arts in a non-partisan fashion.

“While we are a living memorial to President Kennedy, we are also a unique public-private partnership. The Center is supported by federal annual appropriations for the upkeep and maintenance of the building as a federal memorial, or approximately 16% of the total operating budget. Support for the Center’s artistic programming comes from ticket sales, donations, rental income, and other revenue sources,” it continued.

“The Kennedy Center is aware of the post made recently by POTUS on social media. We have received no official communications from the White House regarding changes to our board of trustees. We are aware that some members of our board have received termination notices from the administration,” the institution said.

“Per the Center’s governance established by Congress in 1958, the chair of the board of trustees is appointed by the Center’s board members. 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 action has been taken with the Kennedy Center’s board,” the statement concluded.

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