During his first term in 2019, Trump announced that he was tapping actor Jon Voight, a longtime supporter, to the board, along with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who is Trump's second-term pick to be the U.S. ambassador to Israel.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., released a statement in response to President Donald Trump‘s announcement Friday that he plans to fire board members and name himself chair of the iconic institution.

Trump said he would fire several Kennedy Center board members, including chairman David M. Rubenstein, and make himself chair.

The president had an at-times contentious relationship with Washington's iconic theater during his first term.

The move by the president, whose authority to make the changes was not clear, is the latest attempt to bring a Washington institution under his control.

President Donald Trump announced his intention to appoint himself chair of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and announced he will immediately dismiss multiple board members.

The president announced Friday that he would remove multiple board members, including the Chairman, who do not share his vision for a "Golden Age in Arts and Culture."

Trump did not attend prominent events during his administration. The move comes as his directives have begun to force changes at Washington’s cultural institutions.

The president said he had removed the chairman David Rubenstein, saying he did not “share our vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture."

President Trump announced plans Friday to fire board members for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and install himself as its chairman. "At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.