What is the Kennedy Center, and can Trump make himself chairman?

President Donald Trump’s announcement that he plans to overhaul the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts by firing people from its board and installing himself as the new chairman has raised questions about the future of the famed arts institution.

But what is the Kennedy Center, why is it considered such an important cultural icon, and can Trump actually make the changes he’s proposing? Here’s what you need to know:

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is the country’s national cultural center, located in Washington, D.C. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation to create the center in 1958, but its doors did not open until 1971.

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy spearheaded the $30 million fundraising campaign for the center’s construction. Two months after Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law legislation designating the center as a living memorial for his predecessor.

In the years since, the Kennedy Center has hosted a wide range of performance art, from theater to dance to contemporary music, and served as the residence for the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera.

Every December, the Kennedy Center Honors are awarded for lifetime contributions to American culture. Past recipients include Ella Fitzgerald, Tennessee Williams, Leonard Bernstein, Frank Sinatra, Carole King, Billy Joel, the Grateful Dead, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Queen Latifah.

The center receives up to 2 million visitors a year, according to its website.

Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday that he had decided to “immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees,” including Chairman David M. Rubenstein, “who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.” He did not specify which board members he planned to terminate.

He added that he plans to install himself as the new chairman, and later posted an image of himself, with the words: “Welcome to the New Kennedy Center!”

In his post, Trump criticized drag shows “targeting our youth,” for why he wanted to take over the center, comments that recalled similar lines of attack against drag performances in events led by government-affiliated institutions.

“The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation,” Trump wrote.

The Kennedy Center, which hosts more than 2,200 performances and exhibitions each year, held a small number of shows involving drag last year, including a “Dragtastic Dressup” for LGBTQ+ youth and their parents, a Dancing Queens Drag Brunch, and a Drag Salute to Divas preshow event, according to its website.

Trump’s conflicts with Kennedy Center programs began when some honorees in 2017 threatened to pull out of events including him, following his handling of the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville. The White House said the president and first lady would not attend the Kennedy Center Honors that year “to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction.” He broke tradition from previous presidents by not attending the ceremony throughout his first term.

The Kennedy Center said in a Friday statement it was aware of Trump’s social media post, although it had “received no official communications from the White House regarding changes to our board of trustees.”

Though board members are presidential appointees, the chair of the board is elected by the center’s board members, the statement said. There “is nothing in the Center’s statute that would prevent a new administration from replacing board members” — but it would be the first time in the center’s almost 70-year history that “such action has been taken,” the statement added.

Some board members have already received termination notices from the administration, Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter said in an all-staff email Friday night.

The center’s statute says board members appointed by the president serve six-year terms and doesn’t include language about removal.

A spokesperson for the Kennedy Center pointed to a 2022 federal decision, Spicer v. Biden, as a potential precedent. In that case, Trump appointees Sean Spicer and Russell Vought sued to stop President Joe Biden’s attempt to remove them from the Naval Academy’s board of visitors before their three-year terms were completed.

A judge dismissed their lawsuit, ruling that the law’s language on the board’s terms “did not insulate the plaintiffs from the President’s removal.”

The center receives annual federal funding each year for capital repairs and facilities maintenance, in part to maintain the site as a living memorial for Kennedy. Federal funding makes up just 16 percent of its operating budget, the center said in its statement, and its programming is not federally funded.

“Support for the Center’s artistic programming comes from ticket sales, donations, rental income, and other revenue sources,” the statement reads.

The center’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget justification to Congress requested $45.73 million toward operations, maintenance and renovations.

The Kennedy Center is run by a 36-member board of trustees made up of presidential appointees, as decreed in the legislation that established it. Each trustee serves a six-year term, meaning that the current board includes some trustees appointed by Trump as well as President Joe Biden.

Despite its connection to the executive branch, the Kennedy Center prides itself on being nonpartisan, celebrating on its website the cooperation between Eisenhower and Kennedy in its formation.

“Throughout our history, the Kennedy Center has enjoyed strong support from members of congress and their staffs — Republicans, Democrats, and Independents,” the center said Friday, adding that it had had “a collaborative relationship with every presidential administration” and “a bi-partisan board of trustees that has supported the arts in a non-partisan fashion.”

The current board includes songwriter Jon Batiste, who headlined Biden’s first state dinner, and television producer Shonda Rhimes, who has campaigned for Biden. Elaine Chao, the transportation secretary during the first Trump administration, is a board member, as is Pam Bondi, Trump’s recently confirmed attorney general, and Lee Greenwood, whose song “God Bless the USA” was a favorite of Trump’s during his last presidential campaign.

Ahead of his departure from office, Biden appointed several new members, including former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Evan Ryan, the former White House Cabinet secretary. Longtime Biden adviser Michael Donilon is also a board member.

All current and former first ladies, from Melania Trump to Hillary Clinton, are honorary chairs.

Rubenstein, an influential philanthropist and principal owner of the Baltimore Orioles, was elected Kennedy Center chairman in 2010. He was appointed to the board by President George W. Bush, then reappointed by President Barack Obama and later, by Biden. He and Rutter, the center’s president, both announced last month that they would be stepping down from their positions.

“This is not related to the politics of who’s in the White House. The Kennedy Center is truly nonpartisan,” Rutter told The Washington Post. “Frankly, for the last six years, I’ve had almost all Trump appointees as my board members. And we’ve had a fantastic era with them.”