Trump Visits the Kennedy Center and Muses on Hosting its Honors Gala

His press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, had said at Monday’s briefing that Mr. Trump’s would be touring the center with “a business developer mind” and that he would likely have some recommendations about the infrastructure.

After inspecting the place himself, he declared that “the Kennedy Center is in tremendous disrepair.” In particular, he took issue with the columns outside (“it’s supposed to be covered by something, whether it’s marble or whatever, granite”) and said he wanted to “bring it into more modern times.”

He framed his takeover of the center as part of a larger project which he has long been fixated on: the beautification of the nation’s capital. When foreign leaders are in town, they ought to be impressed by the place, he said, and he sees the center as a jewel box that can be used to that end. “I thought it was very important to make this good,” he said. “It’s a very big part of the fabric of Washington D.C.”

The center, like other federally owned properties, has deferred some maintenance on its building because of budget constraints. It receives only a small portion of its $268 million budget — about $43 million, or 16 percent — from the federal government. That money is not spent on programming but is earmarked for operations, maintenance and repairs of the property.

While Mr. Trump and his entourage were touring the center, a small group of protesters convened at a traffic circle out front. They held signs that warned about fascists and oligarchs. “He has no business being head of the Kennedy Center, the man has no artistic bones in his body,” said one of the protesters, a 27-year-old law student at George Washington University named Theodore Shapira. “I’m sure he’ll gut it and continue to staff it with sycophants.”

Ahead of the board meeting on Monday, Mr. Trump introduced a resolution giving him more oversight of the selection of artists and performers recognized at the annual Kennedy Center Honors program. “In the past, I mean, these are radical left lunatics that have been chosen,” he told the board, according to the recording. “I didn’t like it.”