US president Donald Trump has been appointed chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, he announced on Wednesday. He was elected by a board of new trustees, who were all appointed by Trump himself, after he fired 18 of the former board members, including chairman and billionaire philanthropist David M. Rubenstein.
The new board also fired president of the centre Deborah F. Rutter, who had been in post since 2014 but announced last month that she would depart by the end of this year. Richard Grenell, Trump’s longtime foreign policy adviser, will serve as interim president.
Trump posted on social media: ‘It is a Great Honor to be Chairman of The Kennedy Center, especially with this amazing Board of Trustees. We will make The Kennedy Center a very special and exciting place!’
In response to the news, soprano Renée Fleming stated that she would step down as an artistic adviser to the centre, while producer and screenwriter Shondra Rhimes, who served as the centre’s treasurer, announced her resignation from the board.
While the Kennedy Center has historically been run by bipartisan boards, Trump removed all board members who were appointed by former president Joe Biden. The board had previously been split between Biden and Tump appointees but is now entirely made up of members chosen by Trump. The new board includes the president’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles and Usha Vance, the wife of US vice president JD Vance.
The Kennedy Center said in a statement last week that it did not see anything in the law to prevent such a purge of board members, although such sweeping changes had never previously taken place in its fifty-four-year history.
