Updated March 17, 2025 at 17:55 PM ET
President Trump toured the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Monday, where he also presided over a board meeting as the Center's new chair.
"We're here to have our first board meeting, Kennedy Center, and it's in tremendous disrepair," Trump told reporters during the tour. "As is a lot of the rest of our country, most of it because of bad management."
The Kennedy Center didn't respond to a request for details about the disrepair the president witnessed.
Last month, Trump led an overhaul of the Kennedy Center's leadership by dismissing the previously-appointed Board of Trustees, along with longtime Kennedy Center chair David Rubenstein. Deborah Rutter, who served as president of the cultural center for over a decade, was also ousted.
President Trump named an all-new board that, in an unprecedented move, elected him as the new Kennedy Center Board Chair.
During a White House briefing ahead of Monday's tour, press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump would likely make suggestions for improvements "in his business developer mind." Later that afternoon, the President made several remarks about the state of the performing arts center.
"I think it's important to save this structure and this building," he said. "I think maybe we close up some of the work that's been done and built because it was done terribly. It was done terribly. The concept was very bad."
The Kennedy Center did not share an agenda for the board meeting with NPR, but The New York Times reported that Trump is aiming to exert more influence over the selection of the Kennedy Center Honorees and the board planned to discuss changes to the committee that makes nominations. The Kennedy Center has not requested to NPR's requests for comment about proposed changes.
Since 1978, The Kennedy Center Honors have recognized the lifetime artistic achievements of people and institutions like Queen Latifah, Dolly Parton and the Apollo Theater. During his first term, Trump declined to attend the annual awards ceremony in Washington, D.C.
In 2017, he attended a Fourth of July concert at the Kennedy Center hosted by First Baptist Church Dallas. During the event, the church's choir and orchestra performed a new song that included Trump's "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan in its lyrics. During the concert, President Trump spoke in support of "religious liberty" and against "fake media."
But in recent months, Trump has criticized the Kennedy Center's programming for being "woke" and has vowed to change that moving forward. "We have to straighten it out," he told reporters on Air Force One Sunday after spending the weekend in Florida.
Several artists slated to perform at the Kennedy Center have canceled their shows in protest of new leadership, including comedian Issa Rae, folk musician Rhiannon Giddens and the hit musical Hamilton.
During today's visit, the President said he "never liked" Hamilton. Trump's visit came on the heels of Vice President JD Vance's appearance at the Kennedy Center last week, where he and second lady Usha Vance were booed by the crowd as they attended a National Symphony Orchestra concert. The second lady is one of the newly-appointed members of the Board of Trustees.
Jennifer Vanasco edited this story.
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