Trump Takes Over the Kennedy Center

[littlemissmartypants]

Note: The Atlantic originally broke this story.

The president intends to replace members of the institution’s board as he adopts a more aggressive approach toward the arts.

By Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker

Updated at 4:30 p.m. on February 7, 2025

Artists embarrassed Donald Trump when he first came to Washington. Now that Trump is back in power, he is determined not to let that happen again.

Trump plans to announce the dismissal of multiple members of the Kennedy Center board as soon as today, a group likely to include recent appointees of former President Joe Biden; among those on the current board are the Democratic political strategist Mike Donilon, former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, and Democratic National Committee finance chair Chris Korge. The White House has also had discussions about having Trump himself installed as chair of the board, according to two people familiar with the purge, who requested anonymity to describe plans that are not yet public.
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“The Kennedy Center has received no formal notifications from the White House about what you’ve reported,” Eileen Andrews, the center’s vice president of public relations, told us after this article published.

Trump never attended the Kennedy Center’s annual gala event during his first term, as artists protested his administration and threatened to boycott Kennedy Center events at the White House. Now Trump is making clear that he will not be sidelined again from the most celebrated cultural institution in Washington.

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Original link:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/02q1/trump-kennedy-center-arts/681613/
Archive link:
https://www.archivebuttons.com/articles?article=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/02/trump-kennedy-center-arts/681613/

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