What will a thin-skinned showman do with an institution central to Washington’s cultural life? One expectation is more country music.

Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts opened its doors in September of 1971, it was a solemn celebration featuring a radical new work from Leonard Bernstein: his genre-jumping Mass commissioned by the widow of the nation’s first Catholic President.

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.