Trump Assumes Role as Kennedy Center Chair, Launches Leadership Overhaul and Critiques ‘Woke’ Programming

Trump Assumes Role as Kennedy Center Chair, Launches Leadership Overhaul and Critiques ‘Woke’ Programming

By: Fern Sidman

In a highly scrutinized return to the cultural spotlight, President Donald Trump toured the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Monday, presiding over his first board meeting as the newly elected Chair of the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees. The visit marked a pivotal moment in Trump’s increasing involvement in reshaping one of the nation’s most storied cultural institutions, following a sweeping leadership overhaul carried out just weeks prior.

As reported by National Public Radio (NPR), Trump used the occasion to sharply criticize what he described as the “tremendous disrepair” of the Kennedy Center, drawing a broader parallel to what he characterized as systemic dysfunction across the country. “We’re here to have our first board meeting, Kennedy Center, and it’s in tremendous disrepair — as is a lot of the rest of our country, most of it because of bad management,” Trump told reporters during his walk-through of the iconic Washington, D.C., arts venue.

While the Kennedy Center declined to respond to NPR’s request for clarification about the specific disrepair observed by the president, the remark calls attention to Trump’s characteristic critique of legacy institutions and offers insight into his agenda for the performing arts center’s future.

Trump’s role as Kennedy Center Chair follows a dramatic shake-up of the institution’s leadership. As reported by NPR, last month Trump dismissed the entire previously appointed Board of Trustees, including longtime chair David Rubenstein and Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter, who had served in her role for over a decade.

In a move without precedent in the history of the Kennedy Center, Trump then installed a new board that subsequently elected him as Chair, cementing his personal influence over the nation’s leading performing arts institution. The overhaul, while controversial, reflects a broader trend of Trump seeking to reassert control over “woke institutions,” aiming to align their programming and operations with his cultural vision.

In remarks delivered during the visit and reported by NPR, Trump made clear that his leadership would focus not only on physical restoration but on a cultural and ideological shift at the Kennedy Center. “I think it’s important to save this structure and this building,” Trump said. “I think maybe we close up some of the work that’s been done and built because it was done terribly. It was done terribly. The concept was very bad.”

At a White House briefing ahead of the tour, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump would likely make suggestions “in his business developer mind,” hinting at an impending wave of renovations and programming reconfigurations under his stewardship.

The future of the Kennedy Center Honors, the institution’s most prominent annual celebration of lifetime artistic achievements, also appears to be in flux under Trump’s leadership. While the center did not publicly share the agenda for Monday’s board meeting, NPR reported that The New York Times had obtained information indicating that Trump aims to exert greater control over the Honors nomination process. Discussions are said to be underway to revise the committee structure responsible for selecting honorees — a move that could fundamentally shift the tone and criteria of the awards.

Since their inception in 1978, the Kennedy Center Honors have celebrated artists such as Queen Latifah, Dolly Parton, Cher, Joni Mitchell and the Apollo Theater, among others. Notably, Trump declined to attend the ceremony during his first term, a decision widely interpreted at the time as a protest against artists critical of his presidency.

Trump’s return to the Kennedy Center comes amid a growing backlash from the arts community. In recent months, several high-profile performers have canceled upcoming shows in protest of Trump’s new leadership, as reported by NPR. Those withdrawing include actress and producer Issa Rae, folk musician Rhiannon Giddens, and even the producers of the acclaimed Broadway musical Hamilton, a production Trump openly criticized during his visit. “I never liked Hamilton,” he remarked flatly.

The unrest is not limited to the stage. Just days before Trump’s visit, Vice President J.D. Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance — newly appointed to the Kennedy Center board — attended a National Symphony Orchestra concert at the center, where they were reportedly booed by the audience, according to NPR. The episode reflected the cultural divide that now seems to characterize the institution’s evolving identity under its new leadership.

Trump’s increasing control over the Kennedy Center signals a broader politicization of American cultural institutions, echoing his broader rhetoric about restoring traditional values and combatting “woke” agendas. “We have to straighten it out,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, just before his Washington visit, referring to the Kennedy Center’s programming and governance.

While his critics view the overhaul as an ideological intrusion into the arts, Trump’s supporters see it as a necessary correction to an institution that has grown increasingly disconnected from American values.

As reported by NPR, Trump’s leadership marks a historic turning point for the Kennedy Center — not only in terms of who sits at the top of its governing board, but in the very vision of what America’s premier performing arts institution should represent.