Washington DC - An executive director at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts resigned following President Donald Trump's takeover and rebranding of the iconic institution.

In an interview with The New York Times, Jean Davidson, who had been director of the center's National Symphony Orchestra since April 2023, explained that she felt she couldn't "be effective as a leader in the current climate."

"I've learned a lot in the last three years, and I think it's no secret that it's been a hard year," Davidson explained.

"I had intended to stay through the (orchestra's) 100th anniversary in 2031, but found it more and more difficult to achieve the goals that we had set out to achieve given the external forces that are at work that are just so far beyond my control."

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In February 2025, Trump took over the center and has since fired its board, handpicked their replacements, and made himself the chair, presented himself with the center's annual honors in arts award, renamed it the "Trump-Kennedy Center" without proper congressional approval, and forced the center to stop staging anything he deems "woke."

On July 4, after ticket sales significantly declined and countless performers backed out of performing in protest, Trump closed the center for an expected two years.

While Davidson was fine with the building upgrades, she took issue with the Trump administration implementing sweeping changes without informing her, forcing her and others to find things out "through the press, at the same time as everyone else."

She also noted she had "started looking for a new opportunity several months ago," and is now head of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills.

In a statement provided to The Daily Beast regarding Davidson's exit, a White House spokesperson argued that Trump was turning the center "into the finest performing arts facility anywhere in the world" by strengthening finances, upgrading the building, and "removing divisive woke programming."