President Trump introduced Friday that he deliberate to take over as chair of the Kennedy Heart in Washington, D.C.
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Hulton Archive/Getty Pictures
President Trump says he takes over management of the John F. Kennedy Heart for Performing Arts. He declared himself chairman of Washington D.C.’s long-celebrated cultural establishment on Friday. In doing so, he’ll substitute billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein, an ally of former President Joe Biden who was set to chair till 2026.
Posting on Truth Social, Trump wrote he was instantly terminating “a number of people” from the middle’s Board of Trustees “who don’t share our imaginative and prescient for a Golden Age in Arts and Tradition.”
Trump mentioned he would quickly announce a brand new board, “with a tremendous Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!” He additionally referred to as out the middle’s programming.
“Simply final 12 months, the Kennedy Heart featured Drag Reveals particularly focusing on our youth — THIS WILL STOP. The Kennedy Heart is an American Jewel, and should replicate the brightest STARS on its stage from all throughout our Nation. For the Kennedy Heart, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”
A consultant for Rubenstein, co-founder and co-chairman of personal fairness large Carlyle, mentioned he had “no remark” in regards to the information. However a press release from the Kennedy Heart mentioned that they had acquired no official communications from the White Home relating to modifications to the board of trustees, although they have been conscious that board members acquired termination notices.
“There’s nothing within the Heart’s statute that will stop a brand new administration from changing board members,” learn the assertion. “Nevertheless, this is able to be the primary time such motion has been taken with the Kennedy Heart’s board.”
The assertion additionally referred to the “sturdy help” the middle had acquired all through its historical past “from members of Congress and their staffs—Republicans, Democrats, and Independents.” The Heart has had “a collaborative relationship with each presidential administration,” the assertion elaborated, with “a bi-partisan board of trustees that has supported the humanities in a non-partisan vogue.”
Throughout his first time period as president, Trump didn’t attend the Kennedy Heart’s annual gala; performing artists protested his administration and threatened to boycott Kennedy Heart occasions on the White Home.
It wasn’t instantly clear which Kennedy Heart board members Trump would oust. Throughout his presidency, Biden appointed a number of members to the middle’s board, together with former White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Democratic Nationwide Committee finance chair Chris Korge. TV producer Shonda Rhimes is the board’s treasurer, and musician Jon Batiste can also be on the board.
Based on the center’s website, President Dwight D. Eisenhower conceived of an “inventive mecca” within the nation’s capital in 1955. Eisenhower signed a legislation establishing the Nationwide Cultural Heart, and President Kennedy then led fundraising efforts to construct it. In 1964, two months after Kennedy was assassinated, the cultural middle opened in his identify as a “residing memorial” to current classical and modern music, opera, dance, and different performing arts from the U.S. and world wide.
Through the years, the Heart has showcased and honored many performing artists, together with Fred Astaire and Marian Anderson, in 1981 to final 12 months’s honorees, The Grateful Useless, Frances Ford Coppola, Bonnie Raitt, Arturo Sandoval and the Apollo Theater.
Amongst these performing on the Kennedy Heart this weekend are the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and a staging of the musical Schmigadoon.
