President Donald Trump says he is firing members of the board of trustees for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and naming himself chairman.

He also indicated that he would be dictating programming at one of the nation’s premier cultural institutions, specifically declaring that he would end events featuring performers in drag.

Trump’s announcement Friday came as the Republican president has bulldozed his way across official Washington during the first weeks of his second term, trying to shutter federal agencies, freeze spending and ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across the government.

“At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN. I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” Trump wrote on his social media website.

“We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!”

In a statement later on its website, the Kennedy Center said it was aware of Trump’s post. “We have received no official communications from the White House regarding changes to our board of trustees,” the statement said. “We are aware that some members of our board have received termination notices from the administration.”

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Republished with permission of the Associated Press.

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A federal judge on Friday dealt President Donald Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk their first big setback in their dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, ordering a temporary halt to plans to pull thousands of agency staffers off the job.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, also agreed to block an order that would have given the thousands of overseas USAID workers the administration wanted to place on abrupt administrative leave just 30 days to move families and households back to the U.S. on government expense.

Both moves would have exposed the U.S. workers and their spouses and children to unwarranted risk and expense, the judge said.

Nichols pointed to accounts from workers abroad that the Trump administration, in its rush to shut down the agency and its programs abroad, had cut some workers off from government emails and other communication systems they needed to reach the U.S. government in case of a health or safety emergency.

The Associated Press reported earlier that USAID contractors in the Middle East and elsewhere had found even “panic button” apps wiped off their mobile phones or disabled when the administration abruptly furloughed them.

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Does Rep. Byron Donalds want to be Governor?

If so, he didn’t confirm or deny it or go deep into his thoughts about a potential faceoff with Florida’s First Lady Casey DeSantis on the August 2026 Primary ballot, who is now a “very real” possibility as the logical successor to her husband as Governor

“Nobody’s in a race right now, so we’ll see what happens,” he said, deflecting a question about whether he wanted to run.

Donalds has been rebuffing questions on the topic for almost a year, saying on cable last spring he didn’t want to “break news” on the matter.

But he has one key player in his corner.

At a New York City fundraiser, President Donald Trump suggested Donalds might be a good fit, saying that if he ran for Governor, he’d have “many friends in the race.”

Polling has been conducted with Donalds’ name atop a field, but it’s old and questionable.

One survey that omitted then-Attorney General and current Sen. Ashley Moody and First Lady Casey DeSantis showed him ahead of other potential candidates.

Other polls tell a different tale, with Casey DeSantis leading.

Per a June polling memo from Florida Atlantic University, she leads a field of candidates with 43% support, ahead of Byron Donalds at 19%, with Jimmy Patronis and Matt Gaetz further back still.

A poll conducted in April by FAU showed 38% of 372 Florida Republicans polled would choose the First Lady in a head-to-head race against Gaetz, who would receive 16% support in that scenario.

A University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Lab survey from November 2023 showed the First Lady with 22% support, a lead in a crowded field of potential candidates.

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