By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump proceeded with an overhaul of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday, becoming chairman of the organization and firing its president, Deborah Rutter.
The Kennedy Center said in a statement that its board of trustees, newly filled with appointees by Trump, had elected him chair and named Richard Grennell as interim president.
Trump replaces billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein as chair of the Kennedy Center, one of the leading arts organizations in the country that has enjoyed bipartisan support for years.
Grennell, a former ambassador to Germany during Trump’s first term, is also serving as an envoy for special missions in the president’s administration and helping lead its response to the California wildfires.
The move represents a swift takeover by Trump and his allies of a cultural institution in Washington that is known for its signature Kennedy Center Honors performances and is home to the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera.
Trump did not attend the Honors performances during his first term in office.
Rutter had previously announced her intent to step down at the end of this year. Rubenstein had planned to serve as chair through September 2026.
Last week Trump, a Republican who in just over three weeks in office has sought to slash government jobs and close agencies including the Department of Education and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), announced his plans to target the Kennedy Center, too. In a social media post he lambasted it for for having held “Drag Shows.”
New members of the board included White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, and Usha Vance, wife of Vice President JD Vance. The board now has 31 members. Appointees by former President Joe Biden, including former press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, were dismissed.
Others within Rutter’s office were also let go, according to sources.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by David Gregorio)
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