Trump doesn’t understand the arts. There is no evidence that he has ever been interested in the arts. He doesn’t understand that the arts by their nature are cutting-edge. They take us to imaginative worlds we knew nothing about. They expand our horizons. We can see and love Beethoven, Bach, and Shakespeare, but artists today are living in the 21st century and they express what they think and feel now. They introduce us to new worlds.

Trump took control of the Kennedy Center in D.C., one of the greatest venues for the arts in the world. He had to because every year at the awards ceremony, the artists laughed at him. They ridiculed him. They treated him as an enemy, which indeed he was.

Now that Trump appointed himself as chair of the board, he changed the composition of the board. What was once a bipartisan board, divided equally among Democrats and Republicans, is now 100% all-Trump.

The only way he could stifle those annoying artists was to make himself the chair of the board! No more laughing at Trump! With Trump in charge, no drag shows! Nothing about race or gender! Nothing transgressive! Trump has a track record of destroying whatever he touches. He may destroy the Kennedy Cenrer. Just for spite.

Trump is a vulgarian. He despises artistic freedom. He hates drag shows. He despises WOKE culture. Art is often woke. Ibsen was woke. Most artists are woke.

The President of the Kennedy Center, Deborah Rutter, saw the handwriting on the wall. She resigned, as of December 31, 2025. She will leave sooner now that Trump runs her agency.

She did not understand the tsunami about to hit the Kennedy Center.

Playbill (the Broadway publication) tells the story. If you care about artistic freedom, it’s horrifying.

President Donald Trump has been elected as chairman of the board at the Kennedy Center, after replacing board members appointed by former President Joe Biden with his own loyalists. The board members took a vote and named Trump chair in a meeting held Wednesday afternoon. In response, Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter has announced that she is stepping down from the organization effective immediately. Rutter announced two weeks ago that she would stay in her position until the end of the year, but it seems the recent turmoil at the Washington, D.C. arts organization led to her early departure.

Trump has named loyalist Richard Grenell as interim Kennedy Center President. Grenell, currently the special presidential envoy for special missions, does not appear to have any background in the arts or arts administration. The role of president is typically tasked with the institution’s programming choices, while the chair and the board usually acts in an advisory capacity (though that will likely no longer be the case considering Trump’s strong language for what he plans for the organization).

Rutter, who had held her position since 2014, released a statement before she departed, about the importance of artistic freedom: “Much like our democracy itself, artistic expression must be nurtured, fostered, prioritized, and protected. It is not a passive endeavor; indeed, there is no clearer sign of American democracy at work than our artists, the work they produce, and audiences’ unalienable right to actively participate.”

Trump, who in previous statements vowed to ban drag shows from the venue, wrote on Wednesday on Truth Social: “It is a great honor to be chairman of The Kennedy Center, especially with this amazing Board of Trustees. We will make The Kennedy Center a very special and exciting place!” Historically, the Kennedy Center’s board had been made up of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans. The new board is made up entirely of Trump appointees—including Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles and Usha Vance, the wife of Vice President JD Vance. There are 14 new members, with 31 total members.

According to CBS news, Trump also plans to ban “woke culture” from the Kennedy Center.

“Throughout our history, the Kennedy Center has enjoyed strong support from members of congress and their staffs—Republicans, Democrats, and Independents,” reads a statement from The Kennedy Center released on news of the board members’ termination last week. “Since our doors opened in 1971, we have had a collaborative relationship with every presidential administration. Since that time, the Kennedy Center has had a bi-partisan board of trustees that has supported the arts in a non-partisan fashion.”

Though it is a non-profit institution, only a small portion of the Kennedy Center’s budget comes from the federal government. As the venue’s previous statement shares, the institution “is supported by federal annual appropriations for upkeep and maintenance of the building as a federal memorial, or approximately 16% of the total operating budget.” Its artistic programming, on the other hand, is maintained through “ticket sales, donations, rental income, and other revenue sources.” 

Since his return to the White House, Trump has taken a more controlling approach to the arts. He has also eliminated the Presidential Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, a Reagan-era advisory body that had been disbanded during Trump’s first term and then restarted in 2022 by the Biden administration. Executive orders targeting the trans community and DEI efforts have also thrown federal arts funding into chaos, following updated guidelines from the NEA.

Playbill will continue to follow this story.

Deborah Rutter