By the time Trump finished overhauling the Kennedy Center earlier this month, he had remade the institution’s board with nearly all of his own appointees, replaced David Rubenstein as the center’s chairman with himself, and ousted Deborah Rutter as the organization’s president.

WILL TRUMP’S KENNEDY CENTER COUP HELP HIM WIN THE CULTURE WARS?

Yet, even as Trump supporters celebrated his sweep to rid the Kennedy Center of Biden-era appointees and “woke” ideology, opponents warned that the president’s moves could place one of the country’s most revered cultural institutions in dire financial straits. 

Under the new Trump rule, critics such as Michael Kaiser, chairman of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland, who served for 13 years as president of the Kennedy Center, believe patrons and donors may no longer wish to support the cultural institution. 

Several artistic consultants for the Kennedy Center, such as musician Ben Folds and singer Renee Fleming, resigned from their positions, while actor Issa Rae is the most notable celebrity to cancel her sold-out show at the center. Author Louise Penny and the Alfred Street Baptist Church have also canceled appearances at the acclaimed venue. 

“It’s a very hefty fund-raising challenge,” Kaiser said in comments to the New York Times. “How many of the donors and ticket buyers are not going to renew their giving or their purchase of seats in the new environment?”

While the center received $25 million in emergency funding from the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic, well under a quarter of its budget for fiscal 2025, $45.73 million came from the government. The bulk of funding comes through private donations, ticket sales, and other revenue sources.

Those private funds cover more than three-quarters of the Kennedy Center’s budget, according to WFMT.  The center’s 2023 annual report said its $286 million in revenue included $152 million from ticket sales, services, and fees and $85 million from donations. 

And one of the largest donors to the Kennedy Center was fired as chairman. Before he was ousted, Rubenstein stood as the Kennedy Center’s largest-ever donor, giving $111 million to the institution. Rubenstein, owner of the Baltimore Orioles and chairman of the National Gallery of Art and National Constitution Center, planned to serve as chairman of the Kennedy Center through September 2026.

Trump critics said gutting the center’s establishment figures could be detrimental to sustaining the institution. 

“There is knowledge and relationships that are important to the functioning of a performing art center,” Reynold Levy, former president of the Lincoln Center, told the New York Times. “To the degree that they are gone and the Kennedy Center maintains its mission, it’s going to be severely handicapped.”

Others are optimistic that Trump’s prolific fundraising capabilities will serve the center well. 

“You are not going to have a problem fundraising because people will give money based on the fact that he may be asking them for it,” said Karen Brooks Hopkins, who long served the Brooklyn Academy of Music as its president. “As we’ve seen, he is a very successful fund-raiser.”

The new Kennedy Center team contends that its predecessors left the institution in financial disarray. While the center took in nearly $141 million in contributions and grants in fiscal 2023, it ran a million-dollar deficit last year.

Richard Grenell, who was appointed by the new board to replace Rutter as the institution’s president, said Kennedy Center CFO Stacey Johnson told him, “They’ve been digging into debt reserves.”

“I was briefed today by the CFO of the Kennedy Center on its financial situation. She told me there is ZERO cash on hand. And ZERO in reserves,” Grenell said in a social media post shortly after he took the reins at the center. “And the deferred maintenance is a crisis. For the past months they’ve been digging into the DEBT RESERVES.” 

“We must fix this great institution. The people working hard at the Nation’s premier performing arts center deserve better – and so do all Americans,” Grenell continued. 

Grennel later reposted a statement on social media saying he fired five Kennedy Center executives “totaling $2.4 MILLION in salary.”

Fresh off cultural shifts revealed in the aftermath of the 2024 elections that favored Republicans, Trump himself has signaled unbridled confidence that his revamp of the Kennedy Center will be a storming success.

“I think we’re going to make it hot,” he said during a leaked call to his new board this month. “And we made the presidency hot, so this should be easy.”

The president wants performances hosted by the Kennedy Center “to appeal to what he views as a broader, more inclusive and more balanced audience, instead of those that only appeal to half the country,” according to CBS News, which reported that the White House considers fundraising for the center to be lackluster.

The news came after Trump criticized the institution as too “woke” and busted it for hosting “Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth,” an apparent reference to “Dragtastic Dress-up,” a show last year aimed at LGBT youth.

Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center will likely end the institution’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives implemented in 2020 and its social justice programs. The president has characterized such efforts as detrimental to the American culture of meritocracy and fairness. 

Following the death of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of a white police officer in 2020, the Kennedy Center created several programs designed to “embrace equity” and cultivate “anti-racist behavior” and social justice initiatives, among other goals. 

“Internally, the Kennedy Center is committed to fostering an empowering staff culture and strengthening an environment of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. With an intention to deepen and amplify existing internal efforts, the Center is placing additional focus on hiring practices, training, mentoring, and building inclusive culture through intentional actions and commitment,” the center announced in a press release at the time. 

The Kennedy Center was created in 1958 through legislation signed by former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It continues to operate under the federal government’s jurisdiction as a bureau under the Smithsonian Institution.

THE EXECUTIVE ORDERS, ACTIONS, AND PROCLAMATIONS TRUMP HAS MADE AS PRESIDENT

Earlier this month, Trump fired board members who were appointed by former President Joe Biden and others, including former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. He also subsequently dismissed half the appointed trustees, appointing new board members such as second lady Usha Vance and Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The Kennedy Center’s new board voted unanimously to elect Trump to be its new chairman on Feb. 12. The board also fired Rutter, who served as the center’s president since 2014.