The New York Times reports:

A storm brought down a five-foot piece of ceiling plaster at the Kennedy Center this month and its leadership sprang into action. One thing they did not do was repair the damage. Instead staff members left the mess on the carpet for nearly two weeks, posting photos on social media with commentary like “the place is falling apart and @realDonaldTrump wants to fix it.” They measured plaster shards and mapped the “debris field” like investigators after a plane crash. Mr. Trump claimed online that a security guard had narrowly avoided “certain death.”

Internal emails and documents obtained by The New York Times demonstrate the political capture of the institution by the whims of Mr. Trump, who at the start of his second term installed a board that made him chairman. Audiences and donors fled, and its finances cratered.

The center’s first Trump-appointed director, Richard Grenell, pursued a plan, not previously reported, to replace works in the center’s art collection, including gifts from foreign nations honoring Kennedy, with art selected by Trump patrons. “You can definitely start sending stuff back to the countries who donated it now,” Mr. Grenell said in an email to Josef Palermo, a curator he hired. “Figure out everything you don’t want and just send it back A.S.A.P.”