Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter, brought on by Rubenstein in 2014, resigned soon after the board shake-up. Trump replaced her, on an interim basis, with diplomat Richard Grenell, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Germany during the president's first term.

President Donald Trump wants to lavish his personal friends with Kennedy Center Honors, after parachuting himself into the hot seat at the cultural mecca. Earlier this month, Trump, who reportedly also privately railed against the center’s perceived focus on liberal artists,

Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Trump undertook a "massive overhaul" of the Kennedy Center in the weeks after his inauguration, said USA Today. He fired board members who had been appointed by the Biden Administration,