The Kennedy Center is run by a 36-member board of trustees appointed by the sitting president, 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.

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 has fired several members of the board of trustees for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and make himself the center's chairman.