Richard Grenell, the center’s new president, told a conservative gathering that the “big change” at the center would be a “huge celebration of the birth of Christ at Christmas.”

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.

Fears have risen that President Donald Trump’s fresh team at the Kennedy Center will usher the cultural hub into a dark financial hole, even as the White House‘s allies have said the institution’s former leaders already pulled it into a quagmire of fiscal ruin.