Donald Trump has said in a social media post that the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts will feature ‘NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA – ONLY THE BEST’. He has appointed his foreign policy adviser and close ally Ric Grenell as the Washingon D.C. arts venue’s interim executive director. The US president added, ‘RIC, WELCOME TO SHOW BUSINESS!’
Trump also removed several members of the institutions’s board of trustees, including the billionaire chairman David Rubenstein. Speaking off the cuff to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said a new board, to be led by him, would be appointed.
During Trump’s first term Grenell served as the acting director of National Intelligence and US Ambassador to Germany. He is currently Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions.
Opened in 1971 the Kennedy Center has three main theatres: the Concert Hall, the Opera House and the Eisenhower Theater, and is home to the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera.
In a statement, the institution wrote: ‘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… 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.’
