By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he was appointing Fox News host Laura Ingraham and Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo to the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
In February, weeks after taking office, Trump fired the center’s president, replaced the board of trustees and named himself chairman of the organization.
The moves represented a takeover by Trump of a cultural institution that is known for its signature Kennedy Center Honors performances and is home to the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera.
“This completes our selection,” Trump said on social media after announcing the appointments of Ingraham and Bartiromo.
Trump said last month special U.S. envoy Richard Grenell will serve as the interim executive director of the center.
Since taking office on January 20, Trump, a Republican, has embarked on a massive government makeover, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants and top officials at agencies in his first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more loyalists.
During his first term in office, Trump declined to attend the annual Kennedy Center Honors, considered the top award for achievement in the arts. In December, at the last show attended by former President Joe Biden, the center’s leaders made clear Trump was welcome to come in the future.
Earlier this week, the hit musical “Hamilton” canceled its run at the center after Trump’s takeover.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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