By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) – Richard Grenell, who was appointed last year by President Donald Trump as president of the Kennedy Center, will transition out of his role as the center’s leader, Trump said on Friday.
Matt Floca, the vice president of facilities operations at the national cultural center, will be named chief operating officer and executive director of the institution, Trump said in a post on social media in which he also thanked Grenell.
The change was reported earlier by Axios and is set to be formalized on Monday at a board meeting that will take place at the White House and will also be attended by Trump, the news outlet said.
Trump named himself chairman of the Kennedy Center and filled its board with his allies last year. In December the institution’s board voted to rename it as the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, or the Trump Kennedy Center for short.
Since then many groups and artists have withdrawn from the center, citing the Republican leader’s takeover. Democrats, noting that the center’s name was established by Congress, have said Trump’s rebranding has no force of law. John F. Kennedy’s family denounced the renaming move as undermining the slain president’s legacy.
Trump said last month he planned to close the center for two years for reconstruction starting in July.
Since taking office, Trump has targeted U.S. cultural and historical institutions to remove what he calls liberal bias and “anti-American” ideology.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Caitlin Webber)
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