President Donald Trump dismissed half the appointed trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ board on Feb. 12, 2025. The remaining board members, most of whom he had recently appointed,

Richard Grenell, the center’s new president, told a conservative gathering that the “big change” at the center would be a “huge celebration of the birth of Christ at Christmas.”

The opening scene in the story of President Trump’s takeover of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is a flashback to August 2017, months into his first term as president.Soon after the national cultural center named five luminaries as recipients of its annual Kennedy Center Honors,

American folk musician Rhiannon Giddens has confirmed that she’s cancelled an upcoming show at the Kennedy Center in Washington in protest at its “change in programming direction”. Her statement comes after US President Donald Trump dismissed a number of board members and replaced them with those who are sympathetic to his views on what should and shouldn’t be performed at the prestigious venue.

Rhiannon Giddens has become the latest artist to call off an appearance at the Kennedy Center since Trump took over.