After a reporter aboard Air Force One asked President Donald Trump why he wants to become the chair of the board for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., Trump went on a rant about the "woke" organization—before admitting that he hadn’t actually seen any shows there.
Trump made these remarks after appointing himself as chairman of the board and naming former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell as the interim executive director of the Kennedy Center, placing a close ally at the helm of one of the nation’s most prestigious cultural institutions.
When asked why he wants to be the chairman of the organization's board of directors, Trump said:
“I want to make sure it runs properly. We don’t need woke at the Kennedy Center. Some of the shows were terrible, a disgrace that they were even put on. So I’ll be there until such time as it gets to be running right.”
Then Trump was asked the following question:
“Have you seen any shows there? How do you know they are terrible?”
To which he replied:
"I didn't go, no. I got reports. They were so bad, I didn’t want to go."
"I didn’t want to go! There was nothing that I wanted to see.”
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Trump was swiftly criticized.
The Kennedy Center was thrown into upheaval after Trump unexpectedly removed a large number of its board members and appointed himself as chairman. Members of the board of trustees were notified of their dismissal through official letters, adding to the confusion surrounding the institution’s leadership.
Following the shake-up, the Kennedy Center updated its website, removing the names of the dismissed board members and reclassifying them as emeritus.
Among those ousted were 13 individuals appointed by President Joe Biden near the end of his term, including political figures such as former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Evan Ryan, the former White House Cabinet secretary and wife of ex-Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The removals also affected prominent figures in the arts, including musician Jon Batiste and event planner Bryan Rafanelli.
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