President Donald Trump hosted the Kennedy Center 's leadership at the White House on Monday night, reinforcing how much attention he's devoting to remaking a premier cultural center as part of a larger effort to overhaul the social and ideological dynamics of the national arts scene.Video above: Trump, in February, speaks about the shake-up at the Kennedy Center and some of his plansThe meeting of the center's board in the State Dining Room came after Trump fired its previous members and announced in February that he'd serve as the board's chair. And Trump's budget framework has proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities altogether.Trump told the dinner that congressional Republicans have pushed for more than $250 million for repairs and maintenance at the Kennedy Center, and said that, over the past decade, “tremendous amounts of money” was spent there.“I don’t know where they spent it," he said. "They certainly didn’t spend it on wallpaper, carpet or painting.”Richard Grenell, a Trump envoy for special missions who is interim head of the Kennedy Center, said a previous budget included “$26 million in phantom revenue.” He suggested the behavior could be a criminal matter for prosecutors and that Bondi, in addition to being on the center's board, heard the details at a meeting earlier Monday.“She heard the details, and this is unacceptable,” Grenell said.Trump said the center would raise funds but added of the building's state that it's "falling apart”He said previous “programming was out of control with rampant political propaganda" and featured “some very inappropriate shows” including a “Marxist anti-police performance” and “Lesbian-only Shakespeare.
Author: Will Weissert
Published at: 2025-05-19 21:13:34
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