Trump announces plans to gut the Kennedy Center board and appoint himself chairman

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Trump announces plans to gut the Kennedy Center board and appoint himself chairman

CNN
February 7, 2025, 7:13 PM

(CNN) — President Donald Trump announced an aggressive plan Friday evening to gut the existing board of trustees at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and oust its chairman, billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein, a remarkable move aimed at remaking the nation’s cultural center.

{snip}

Rubenstein, the board’s current chairman, is an ally of former President Joe Biden.

Trump’s announcement also dove directly into the culture wars as he called out the center’s programming. … Trump continued, “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP. The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation. For the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”

{snip}

Current members appointed by Trump include Lee Greenwood, Paolo Zampolli, and Attorney General Pamela Bondi.

{snip}

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak and Kaanita Iyer contributed to this report.

[LearnedHand]

1. Just waiting to see the first Lee Greenwood

Performance with nothing but MAGA hats, still on heads, in the audience.

🤮

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Trump moves to reshape Kennedy Center, vows to end drag shows

Trump moves to reshape Kennedy Center, vows to end drag shows

By FOX 5 DC Digital Team Updated February 7, 2025 11:09pm EST FOX 5 DC

The Brief
• President Donald Trump plans to remove multiple Kennedy Center Board of Trustees members, including Chairman David M. Rubenstein.
• Trump criticized the Kennedy Center’s past programming, specifically drag performances, and vowed to reshape its cultural direction.
• The Kennedy Center, established in 1958 and renamed in honor of President John F. Kennedy in 1964, has been a major arts institution.

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump announced his plans to remove multiple members of the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees Friday, including Chairman David M. Rubenstein.

Rubenstein, a billionaire investor and philanthropist, has led the Kennedy Center since 2010. He is also co-founder of the Carlyle Group, chairman of the National Gallery of Art and the Council on Foreign Relations, and a major donor to arts and cultural institutions.

{snip}

[Turbineguy]

3. Minister of Culture too?

You like ketchup with that steak?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. The Kennedy Center's president just pushed back on Trump's illegal plans to seize control of the board.

This makes me smile

BREAKING: The Kennedy Center’s president just pushed back on Trump’s illegal plans to seize control of the board. This is the kind of pushback we need. 👏👏👏👏👏👏💥

— Paul Eric Scannell (@pauleric70.bsky.social) 2025-02-08T21:29:25.433Z

Link to tweet

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. Sorry, you have been blocked

I thought that statement from the Kennedy Center board came out yesterday. I went to a local source to check. WUSA, a TV station in DC, had an article with a link.

Kennedy Center responds to Trump's announcement that he's taking over as chairman

When I clicked on the link in the article to the board’s statement, I got this:

https://www.kennedy-center.org/Util/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%252fnews-room%252fpress-release-landing-page%252fkennedy-center-statement%252f

Sorry, you have been blocked
You are unable to access kennedy-center.org
Why have I been blocked?
This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.
What can I do to resolve this?
You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page.

It looks as if you can get in normally, through the front door, but not through the newsroom.

https://www.kennedy-center.org/kennedy-center-statement/