Trump pledges overhaul of Kennedy Centre in first visit as board chair

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump visited the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts on March 17 for the first time since making himself its new chairman, threatening to shutter an expensive new addition and describing the marble Washington landmark as being in “tremendous disrepair”.

Mr Trump, who is juggling efforts to end Russia’s war with Ukraine while also dismantling US agencies and

firing thousands of federal workers

, presided over the centre’s board meeting in a demonstration of his takeover of an institution that has long enjoyed bipartisan support in Washington.

Mr Trump, a former real estate executive, criticised an expansive addition built on the Kennedy Centre complex for lacking windows and suggested closing it.

He said the centre would improve physically over time, however, and he encouraged people to attend shows there.

“This represents a very important part of DC, and actually our country,” he said when asked why he was making time to come to the Kennedy Centre with so many other things on his plate.

“I think it’s important to make sure that our country is in good shape and is represented well.”

Mr Trump became chair of the Kennedy Centre

in February after pushing out billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein.

He fired its long-time president, Ms Deborah Rutter, and installed his former ambassador to Germany, Mr Richard Grenell, as interim president.

Before the March 17 board meeting, portraits of Mr Trump, his wife Melania, Vice-President J.D. Vance and his wife Usha, were hung in the Kennedy Centre’s Hall of Nations.

The institution is considered a living memorial to slain former President John F. Kennedy. Other presidents’ portraits are not present.

Mr Vance and his wife, who is now a member of the board, attended a recent performance at the Kennedy Centre and were booed by the crowd, according to video that circulated on X.

Mr Trump held the March 17 meeting on the stage of the centre’s opera house with Mr Grenell, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Attorney-General Pam Bondi and others in attendance.

“You can’t have this looking like it does,” he said, criticising Mr Rubenstein’s stewardship. “I know the... person who... was in charge of it, and he’s a good man. I never realised this was in such bad shape. I’ve been so busy I haven’t been able to be here in a long time, and I shouldn’t be with what I’m doing. But I thought it was important.”

Mr Trump declined to attend the annual Kennedy Centre Honours performances during his first term in office and complained, when announcing plans to shake up the institution’s board, about drag performances held there.

Some artists have cancelled engagements because of the changes.

The musical “Hamilton”, which had been slated to stage its third run at the Washington landmark in 2026, pulled out.

“The recent purge by the Trump Administration of both professional staff and performing arts events at or originally produced by the Kennedy Centre flies in the face of everything this national cultural centre represents,” the show’s producer Jeffrey Seller said in a statement on X.

Mr Grenell called the decision “a publicity stunt that will backfire” and criticised the show’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda.

“The Arts are for everyone – not just for the people who Lin likes and agrees with,” Mr Grenell said on X.

On March 17, Mr Trump said he never liked “Hamilton” very much. REUTERS