The Kennedy Center is wasting money and is in disrepair, President Trump said Monday, promising to make it great again in a rare visit to the 54-year-old performing arts complex.
Mr. Trump stopped by the center for a tour and to sit in on the first meeting of the center’s new board of directors, weeks after he fired its members, replaced them with loyalists and named himself chairman.
The president was displeased with the state of the building, promising to fix it up and bring in “some really good shows,” among them Broadway hits.
“We’ll bring it back. We’ll make it great again,” he said.
Mr. Trump, a real estate developer, criticized the building, telling reporters vast amounts of space were wasted while the entire design concept “was very bad.”
Huge underground rooms go unused, Mr. Trump said.
He announced he’ll soon work with Congress, which funds the center, on a plan to overhaul the building.
“I think it’s important to save the structure of this building,” Mr. Trump said. “I think maybe we close up some of the work that’s been done and built, because it’s been done terribly.”
It’s the largest shake-up in Kennedy Center history.
Last month, he ousted the center’s longtime Kennedy Center Board Chairman David Rubenstein, who is also the center’s biggest donor. Mr. Trump also fired Deborah F. Rutter, who served as the Kennedy Center’s president for more than a decade.
Mr. Trump installed longtime ally Richard Grenell as president and filled the board with new and conservative faces including Fox News host Laura Ingraham, second lady Usha Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
Mr. Trump said the changes were necessary to usher in a “golden age in arts and culture.” He pledged that there would be no more drag shows or “anti-American propaganda” at the Kennedy Center.
The shake-up caused an uproar in the performing arts world and among the center’s left-leaning patrons.
In protest, some notable acts canceled shows at the Kennedy Center, among them the musical “Hamilton,” Issa Rae and Rhiannon Giddens.
“Hamilton” producer Jeffrey Seller accused Mr. Trump of injecting politics into the Kennedy Center.
“Political disagreement and debate are vital expressions of democracy,” he said when canceling the show. “These basic concepts of freedom are at the very heart of ’Hamilton.’ However, some institutions are sacred and should be protected from politics. The Kennedy Center is one such institution.”
Vice President J.D. Vance and Mrs. Vance were loudly booed last week while attending a Kennedy Center performance by the National Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Trump shrugged off the uproar, telling reporters he “never liked ’Hamilton’ very much,” and that more Broadway shows are coming.
The plays “Les Miserables,” “Porgy and Bess” and “Legally Blonde” remain on the schedule for later this year.
“I would say this. Come here and watch it, and you’ll see, over a period of time, it’ll improve very greatly, physically. And we’re going to get some very good shows,” Mr. Trump said.
Board members Monday were slated to consider a resolution granting Mr. Trump authority to appoint or replace the committee that selects which artists are recipients of the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors.
Each year beginning in 1978, the Kennedy Center honors luminaries from across the entertainment spectrum without input from the White House. The list of artists and performers to receive the honor includes Lucille Ball, Clint Eastwood, Bob Hope, the Grateful Dead and Earth, Wind & Fire.
Typically, the committee to nominate honorees is made up of artists previously feted by the Kennedy Center. Last year’s committee was chaired by philanthropist David Bohnett, and included Gloria Estefan, Sally Field, Renee Fleming, Herbie Hancock, Lionel Richie, composer John Williams and Judith Jamison.
Mr. Trump said he had arranged for Kennedy Center board member and recording artist Lee Greenwood to perform a song at the inaugural board meeting. But he had to cancel it, Mr. Trump said, because “the union wanted $30,000 to move a piano.”
