Trump-appointed board elects him Kennedy Center chair as longtime president is ousted

Muri Assunção, New York Daily News on Feb 12, 2025

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Donald Trump has been elected chairman of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as the organization’s longtime president, Deborah F. Rutter, has reportedly been fired.

The U.S. president is making good on his promise to combat what he calls “woke” and “terrible” programming at the prestigious cultural center in Washington, D.C.

On Friday, Trump said he had “decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the (center’s) Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” writing on this social media platform that he would soon announce “a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, Donald J. Trump.”

His vision for the Kennedy Center specifically includes a ban on drag shows and “other anti-American propaganda,” he said on Monday when naming Richard Grenell, his envoy for special missions, as the center’s interim executive director.

On Wednesday, just days after the dramatic dissolution of the Kennedy Center’s bipartisan Board of Trustees, Trump took to social media to say he’d been “unanimously elected chairman of the board.”

“It is a Great Honor to be Chairman of The Kennedy Center, especially with this amazing Board of Trustees,” he wrote on Truth Social. “We will make The Kennedy Center a very special and exciting place!”

The newly appointed board now includes Usha Vance, the wife of Vice President J.D. Vance, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi and longtime Trump loyalist Dan Scavino.

Rutter, the organization’s now-former president, had previously announced plans to step down at the end of the year, saying in a Jan. 27 statement that the time had come to “pass the torch” after more than 10 years “collaborating with some of the most phenomenal artists, cultural leaders, diplomats, philanthropists, volunteers and administrators.”

However, according to the New York Times, two unnamed officials at the center said Rutter was fired from her position following the board overhaul.

The recent stunning developments led Ben Folds, artistic adviser to the National Symphony Orchestra, to announce his resignation on Wednesday.

“Not for me,” the Emmy-nominated singer-songwriter-composer posted on Instagram.

Folds’ exit was followed by TV powerhouse Shonda Rhimes, who resigned as the center’s treasurer, along with soprano superstar Renée Fleming, who cited the ousting of Rutter and former chairman David Rubenstein as her reason for resigning as artistic adviser.

“They have both been an inspiration to me; and out of respect, I think it right to depart as well,” Fleming said in a statement.

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