President Trump visited the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington on Monday for the first time since he stunned the cultural and political establishment nearly five weeks ago by taking over the institution.
Mr. Trump made himself chairman of the center’s board last month after dismissing all of the Biden-era appointees, upending a bipartisan tradition that had endured for decades. He planned to preside over a board meeting, and tour the center with a “business developer mind,” said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary.
“I’m sure he will make some recommendations on how the center itself can be improved,” Ms. Leavitt said at a news briefing on Monday, “but also we’ll be discussing perhaps some future plays and musicals and theatrical programs that the center will be hosting under his new leadership.”
At the board meeting on Monday, Mr. Trump planned to push through a resolution giving him more oversight of the selection of artists and performers recognized at the annual Kennedy Center Honors program. The awards ceremony, an annual star-studded gala that is televised on CBS, is the institution’s most important fund-raiser of the year.
In 2017, early in his first term, several honorees criticized Mr. Trump. He boycotted the show that year and for the remainder of his term, breaking with tradition.
Now, after changes that will likely be approved on Monday, Mr. Trump will have the power to hire and fire members of the committee that helps decide who will receive the honor. Since the program began in 1978, honorees have been chosen without White House interference.