Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump said he was dismissing members of the board of directors for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and name the president.
He also indicated that he would dictate programming in one of the country’s first cultural institutions, specifically declaring that he would end up events showing trail artists.
Trump’s announcement on Friday came while the republican president burst out through the official Washington in the first weeks of his second term, trying to close the federal agencies, freeze spending and end diversity initiatives , equity and inclusion through the government.
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“In my direction, we are going to do the Kennedy Center at Washington DC, again. I decided to immediately terminate several individuals from the board of directors, including the president, who does not share our vision of a golden age in the arts and culture, “wrote Trump on his media website social.
“We will soon announce a new board of directors, with an incredible president, Donald J. Trump!”
In a statement later on his website, the Kennedy Center said he was aware of Trump’s position. “We have not received any official communication from the White House concerning the modifications of our board of directors,” the statement said. “We are aware that some members of our council have received dismissal opinions from the administration.”
The press release continued: “According to the governance of the center established by the congress in 1958, the chairman of the board of directors was appointed by the members of the Center council. There is nothing in the law of the center which would prevent a new administration from replacing the members of the board of directors; However, this would be the first time that such measures have been taken with the Kennedy Center board of directors. »»
Drag Artists accused Trump of having targeted them because of whom they are in a country where freedom of expression is guaranteed by the Constitution.
“It is a question of knowing who exists in public spaces and whose stories can be told on the American scene,” said Blaq Dinamyte, president of Qommittee, a national network of artists and allies of Drag. “The ban on an entire art form is censorship, clear and simple. The Americans do not have to agree on everything, but we should be able to speak our minds and make our art without prohibitions, reprisals or intimidation. »»
Unlike Democratic President Joe Biden and other presidents during the decades, Trump did not witness The annual Kennedy Center honors ceremonies during its first mandate.
Shortly after Trump’s publication, the Kennedy Center website began to encounter technical difficulties. The visitors received a message by reading “we know high traffic” and were redirected to a “waiting room” which listed how many hundreds of people tried to access the site in front of them.
Trump suggested in his article that he would implement changes to the center performance calendar, noting that last year “the Kennedy Center presented dredging shows specifically targeting our young people – that will stop”.
According to its website, the center in July welcomed a press entitled “A Drag Halute to Divas” and a “Drag brunch” in November.
In his article, Trump did not specify the members of the board of directors which he would dismiss the current president, the philanthrope David Rubenstein. The board of directors often offers powerful political brokers and major donors, and is currently made up of members on both sides of the aisle.
Rubenstein was elected for the first time in 2010 and has been re -elected each year since then. He was initially appointed to the board of directors of Kennedy Center by Republican President George W. Bush and was then renamed by Democratic President Barack Obama and Biden.
The current board of directors features the press secretary of the White House, Karine Jean-Pierre, as well as Mike Donilon, the longtime ally of Biden, and Stephanie Cutter, a former adviser from Obama. The Treasurer of the Center Board of Directors is the television producer Shonda Rhimes, who welcomed fundraising for Biden before abandoning his candidacy for re -election last summer.
But the current council also features Trump allies, including Pam Bondi, his recently confirmed prosecutor General, and Lee Greenwood, whose song “God injuries the USA”, was the unofficial anthem of Trump’s presidential campaigns.
During his first mandate in 2019, Trump announced that he was tapping actor Jon Voight, a long -standing supporter on the board of directors, with the former Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, who is the Choice of Trump’s second term to be the American ambassador to Israel.
The writer Associated Press Darlene Superville in Palm Beach, Florida, contributed to this report.