During his first term in 2019, Trump announced that he was tapping actor Jon Voight, a longtime supporter, to the board, along with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who is Trump's second-term pick to be the U.S. ambassador to Israel.

Trump said he would fire several Kennedy Center board members, including chairman David M. Rubenstein, and make himself chair.

The move by the president, whose authority to make the changes was not clear, is the latest attempt to bring a Washington institution under his control.