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Young engineers deployed across the US government as part of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have triggered alarm throughout Washington’s security establishment. Never before has a group of unvetted and inexperienced outsiders gained such access to the nerve center of the US government, according to security experts.The campaign, led by Musk’s DOGE team, began at the Treasury Department when they took control of the US government’s payment system — a move justified as monitoring public spending. From there, it expanded into an unprecedented cost-cutting initiative, with software engineers spreading across federal agencies, taking control of computer systems.They have disrupted and in some cases effectively shuttered organizations such the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Department of Education, and the General Services Administration (GSA), which manages much of the government’s infrastructure and building portfolio.”In the span of just weeks, the US government has experienced what may be the most consequential security breach in its history,” wrote Bruce Schneier, a security technologist at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Davi Ottenheimer of Inrupt, a data infrastructure company, in Foreign Policy.The situation is particularly critical at the Bureau of Fiscal Services, the Treasury unit managing all federal payments -— a crucial chokepoint of the US economy. An internal report by an outside contractor warned that the access given to the DOGE team “poses the single greatest insider threat risk the Bureau has ever faced.”The computer systems in question rank among the world’s most complex and sensitive. Yet DOGE is staffed primarily with individuals connected to Musk’s companies and young tech professionals in their 20s -— virtually none of whom have been vetted, or have government experience. As for Musk himself — who is unelected — there are concerns about his conflicts of interest, as his companies hold several major government contracts, and whether access to sensitive data will give his business empire an even greater advantage.Meanwhile, senior government workers with decades of system expertise have been blocked from buildings and sidelined by DOGE teams, raising concerns among those who understand the intricate vulnerabilities of government technology.The consequences are already emerging. At the Office of Personnel Management, the government’s HR department, reports indicate DOGE-associated individuals connected an unauthorized server to the network and are using AI software on US citizens’ personal data — in violation of federal privacy laws.The blitz on government has sparked numerous lawsuits, forcing some retreat from DOGE, with a Trump official on Wednesday acknowledging to a judge that a staffer should not have had full system access.In another security slip-up, according to The New York Times, the CIA sent an unclassified email listing all employees hired by the spy agency over the last two years to comply with cost-cutting efforts spearheaded by DOGE.- Too much power -Security experts Schneier and Ottenheimer are especially troubled by the removal of career officials who managed security measures. “The Treasury’s computer systems have such an impact on national security that they were designed with the same principle that guides nuclear launch protocols: No single person should have unlimited power,” they wrote. Making changes to critical financial systems “traditionally requires multiple authorized personnel working in concert,” they said.Musk, who frequently posts on the social platform he owns, X, dismisses government workers as either inept or politically compromised — a “deep state” aligned with Democrats and opposed to Trump. The risk of mistakes has alarmed cybersecurity experts, including Michael Daniel, former White House cybersecurity coordinator under Barack Obama and current head of the Cyber Threat Alliance.”The Chinese, the Russians, other intelligence services -– they put their A-teams on projects that target the US government, and they will exploit any opportunity they have,” Daniel warned. “This assumption that obviously everybody that works for the federal government is stupid and incompetent, and it’s so simple that it doesn’t even matter who you put on the job… that’s just incorrect.” “With government systems, things are not necessarily obvious on the surface. And it takes experience to understand what some of those issues are.”Meanwhile, security experts note that China and Russia, which have long targeted these sensitive systems, could weaponize mistakes and vulnerabilities made in one afternoon for years to come.If “cybersecurity is not top of mind in every step of the integration, you potentially open the door for foreign intelligence services and sophisticated cyber criminals to find a way through,” Eric O’Neill, former FBI operative and strategist for cybersecurity specialty firm NeXasure, told AFP.

New York, Paris and Berlin are celebrating the anniversaries this year of iconic art installations that saw some of their most prominent landmarks wrapped in fabric by the late artists known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude.Forty years ago the couple enfolded the Pont Neuf, one of Paris’s most beloved bridges, in a silky, sandstone-colored material for “The Pont Neuf Wrapped.”Ten years later, in 1995, came “Wrapped Reichstag,” when they swathed the parliament building in Berlin with a shiny, aluminum-like material.And ten years after that was “The Gates” in New York’s Central Park, which saw miles of steel gates hung with saffron-colored nylon fabric. The giant works are long gone. But the three cities will hold exhibits marking their anniversaries — as well as what would have been both Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s 90th birthdays — this year.Bulgarian-born Christo — full name Christo Vladimirov Javacheff — died in 2020, 11 years after his French wife Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon passed away.The artists were only interested in seeing the projects once they were done and “when they see it, for them, two weeks is enough,” said their nephew Vladimir Yavachev.He recalled a quote from then New York mayor Michael Bloomberg about “The Gates”: “If you hate it, it’s temporary. If you love it, it’s still temporary.”Yavachev, who is seeking to complete unfinished works by the couple involving the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and a sculpture in the desert in Abu Dhabi, said it was “just a coincidence” that many of their projects happened in years ending with a “five.”He spoke from couple’s art studio in the Soho district of New York, which — unlike the mammoth installations they are remembered for — endures.In the workshop models for the unfinished jobs in Paris and Abu Dhabi sit on tables and are displayed on the walls.Boxes of paint and pencils and work tables also fill this workshop on the fifth floor of an old building where the artists arrived in 1964.Other artifacts include an old radio to listen to during long sessions of creativity, a black telephone that looks utterly prehistoric, and samples of fabric of the kind used to wrap entire buildings.It all looks ready to use, like the artists are going to show up again any minute.

A Houston poultry supply company is selling chickens like there is no tomorrow, as sky-high prices for eggs prompt some Americans to produce their own at home.A recent US outbreak of bird flu since early 2024 is exacting a heavy toll on poultry farms. More than 21 million egg-laying hens have been “depopulated” this year so far, after 13.2 million were culled in December, according to the US Department of Agriculture.Eggs, as a result, are a precious commodity these days.John Berry, who manages a livestock company in Houston, reported a dramatic increase in demand for chickens as consumers grapple with the egg shortage.  “Our sales for poultry have doubled or maybe potentially tripled. I mean we’re selling 100 chickens a week or more,” Berry told AFP.In times of egg abundance it would take two or three weeks to sell that many birds, he said.A dozen premium eggs can now cost an eye-popping $10 in some US supermarkets, with even lower-grade ones now drawing twice their usual price of what is normally between two and three dollars.The popular grocery store chain Trader Joe’s is limiting purchases to one dozen eggs of any kind per household per day, and Costco is also limiting purchases. Waffle House restaurants have slapped a 50-cent surcharge on each egg in a dish to compensate for higher costs.Last week in Seattle, a restaurant was robbed of 500 eggs from its storeroom in the middle of the night.- ‘ I have a large family’ -Berry said most of his chicken buyers are new to the world of egg production.Such is the case of Arturo Becerra, who recently bought 10 hens for $400, with another $20 for a month’s worth of feed.On Monday, he bought five more hens, and plans to get another 10, “because I have a large family.” His hens are still young and need a few more weeks to start laying eggs.Some cities and towns in Texas allow people to raise chickens at home if they follow certain health norms.The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say the risk to the general public from avian flu remains “low,” but has released safety guidelines for owners of backyard bird flocks. The CDC also says that “people with job-related or recreational exposures to birds or other H5 virus-infected animals, are at greater risk of infection.”That has not appeared to deter Becerra. “Now I have some place to put them, and besides, eggs are very expensive,” said Becerra, a 57-year-old man who was born in Mexico. “I think it will be cheaper to buy hens and raise them.”Billy Underhill, the 62-year-old owner of a construction company and longtime chicken raiser, has bought two more of the clucking creatures.”I just heard someone yesterday say that eggs were, like, 10 dollars a dozen,” he said.”I was already planning on buying a couple more chickens. I buy a couple every couple months because some of them die. Eventually they die and they stop laying so I’m going to keep the flow of eggs going in my family,” he said.Berry said there are no chickens to replace the millions that had to be killed because of avian influenza.”You have to have had anticipated this and raised a thousand extra chickens or a million extra chickens,” said Berry.In the United States, the disease is affecting not just poultry farms but also dairy cows.  There have been 68 cases among people since early last year, with one of them fatal. Most of them were among people coming into contact with infected animals, according to the CDC. The man who died was infected “after exposure to a combination of a non-commercial backyard flock and wild birds,” health authorities said.Berry said there is a generation of chickens growing and waiting to replace the ones who were destroyed. But it will take time, and as eggs store well, he recommends that people stock up.”It’ll be a couple of months, I would guess at the soonest. Seems like it’s two or three months or more before things kind of get right.”

A US judge on Wednesday lifted his freeze on a buyout plan offered to federal workers, handing President Donald Trump a victory in his efforts to drastically slash the government workforce.US District Judge George O’Toole, who had temporarily paused the plan last week, lifted his restraining order on the mass buyout offer.Labor unions representing federal employees had filed suit to block the scheme masterminded by billionaire Elon Musk to slash the size of the US government by encouraging federal workers to quit.In an email titled “Fork in the Road,”  the more than two million US government employees were given an offer to leave with eight months’ pay or risk being fired in future culls.The White House says more than 65,000 federal employees have signed on to the buyout offer from the Office of Personnel Management.O’Toole, an appointee of president Bill Clinton, said the unions lacked the standing to bring the suit and his court did not have jurisdiction over the matter. “The unions do not have the required direct stake in the Fork Directive, but are challenging a policy that affects others, specifically executive branch employees,” he said.The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents 800,000 federal workers and was among the unions that brought the suit, called the ruling “a setback in the fight for dignity and fairness for public servants.” “But it’s not the end of that fight,” AFGE national president Everett Kelley said in a statement. “Importantly, this decision did not address the underlying lawfulness of the program. “We continue to maintain it is illegal to force American citizens who have dedicated their careers to public service to make a decision, in a few short days, without adequate information, about whether to uproot their families and leave their careers for what amounts to an unfunded IOU from Elon Musk,” Kelley said.- ‘Abusing their power’ -Musk, the world’s richest person and Trump’s biggest donor, is in charge of a free-ranging entity called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that aims to cut hundreds of billions of dollars in government spending.His plans have effectively shuttered some federal agencies, sent thousands of staff members home and sparked legal battles across the country.Trump’s executive actions have been challenged in dozens of court cases and the White House accused judges on Wednesday of “abusing their power” to block the president’s moves.”The real constitutional crisis is taking place within our judicial branch, where district court judges in liberal districts across the country are abusing their power to unilaterally block President Trump’s basic executive authority,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.The decisions have come from judges nominated by both Republican and Democratic presidents, including Trump himself during his first term.But Leavitt accused the judges of “acting as judicial activists rather than honest arbiters of the law.”She had asserted that “77 million Americans voted to elect this president, and each injunction is an abuse of the rule of law and an attempt to thwart the will of the people.” She later celebrated the lifted freeze, calling it “the first of many legal wins for the President.”Attorney General Pam Bondi, at her first press conference on Wednesday, described Musk as a “great man” and said “we are going to back up Elon Musk every way we can.”Asked whether the Trump administration would seek to impeach federal judges, Bondi said “that’s not going to happen now.””We’re going to look at everything,” she said. “We’re going to follow the law right now. We’re going to follow the process.”These are federal judges with lifetime appointments,” she noted, “but they will be struck down ultimately by the Supreme Court of the United States if the appellate courts don’t follow the law as well.”

US officials said Wednesday they had secured the release of three “hostages” who had been detained in Belarus, including an American citizen, in a diplomatic success for President Donald Trump’s administration.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the release of the three, including “one American and two individuals from Belarus, one of whom worked for Radio Liberty.”US Ambassador to Lithuania Kara McDonald, speaking on CNN from Vilnius, described the release as “a big day for team America, for the president, for the secretary of state,” adding “we just welcomed them (the detainees) here a few minutes ago.”Exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya hailed the “wonderful news” in a post on X, thanking Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio “for their joint efforts in making this happen.”Chris Smith, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Eastern European affairs, described a “special operation” in which he and other US officials “crossed into the Belarusian frontier (and) went into Minsk to meet with Belarusian counterparts who brought these three detainees to us.””They were handed over to us, and we brought them back out through Lithuania,” he told CNN.The released American has not been identified.The White House’s Leavitt called the US citizen’s release “a remarkable victory on the heels of Marc Fogel returning to America last night.”Fogel, an American teacher held in Russia since 2021, was freed Tuesday in a prisoner swap with Moscow.One of the persons freed by Minsk is Andrey Kuznechyk, a veteran journalist with Radio Liberty, according to a statement from the broadcaster which is known in Belarus as Radio Svaboda.- ‘Joyous day’ -US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the two Belarusian detainees “political prisoners” and thanked the Lithuanian government for its its assistance in the matter, calling it “a true ally and friend.” He also did not name the released American.”We remain committed to the release of other US citizens in Belarus and elsewhere,” Rubio staid in a statement. “We call for the release of nearly 1,300 political prisoners who remain in jail across Belarus.”In a statement, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) President Stephen Capus said: “This is a joyous day for Andrey, his wife, and their two young children. After more than three years apart, this family is together again thanks to President Trump.”RFE/RL posted a video of Kuznechyk hugging his wife, still wearing a prison uniform.Founded during the Cold War, RFE/RL is a broadcaster funded by the US Congress to transmit information behind the Iron Curtain.Kuznechyk was arrested in 2021, and in 2022 was sentenced to six years in a hard labor camp on charges of participating in or organizing an “extremist organization,” the broadcaster said.On Sunday, billionaire Elon Musk, who is spearheading Trump’s federal government cost-cutting efforts, called for RFE/RL and another broadcaster funded by Congress, the Voice of America, to be shuttered.Tikhanovskaya wrote on X that the other Belarusian citizen released, activist Yelena Movshuk, is “in a serious health condition.”Movshuk was detained in 2020 and in 2021 sentenced to six years on a charge of taking part in mass riots.Tikhanovskaya’s aide Franak Viachorka wrote on Facebook that Movshuk “is in a difficult physical and psychological condition.””We drove her to a safe place. On the way she told of all the horrors that she had to go through,” he added.

US President Donald Trump’s administration filed a lawsuit against New York on Wednesday accusing the Democratic-ruled state of hindering federal efforts to crack down on undocumented migrants.The legal action comes a week after the Justice Department sued so-called “sanctuary” city Chicago and the Midwestern state of Illinois on similar grounds.”We sued Illinois and New York didn’t listen,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi said at a press conference. “New York has chosen to prioritize illegal aliens over American citizens. It stops today.”If you don’t comply with federal law we will hold you accountable,” Bondi said. “And if you are a state not complying with federal law, you’re next.”Trump pledged during his 2024 presidential campaign to carry out the largest mass deportation of undocumented migrants in US history.Bondi complained that law enforcement officers in New York are not allowed, for example, to check the residency status of motorists who they pull over for traffic violations.”If (they) pull over someone and don’t have access to their background, they have no idea who they’re dealing with,” she said.New York’s Department of Motor Vehicles also has a “tipoff provision” to “inform any illegal alien when a federal immigration agency has requested their information,” Bondi said.”It’s unconstitutional, and that’s why we filed this lawsuit,” she said.Bondi was accompanied at the press conference by a woman whose 20-year-old daughter was murdered by a member of the MS-13 gang who the attorney general said should not have been allowed into the country.”No other parents should suffer by having their child murdered by somebody that shouldn’t be here,” Bondi said. “Millions of illegal aliens with violent records have flooded into our communities, bringing violence and deadly drugs with them.”Trump has insisted that undocumented migrants are disproportionately responsible for crime, despite research showing US citizens commit more offenses per capita.After taking office, Trump declared a “national emergency” on the southern US border and signed an executive order stating that undocumented migrants present “significant threats to national security and public safety.””Further exacerbating this national crisis, some of these aliens find safe havens from federal law enforcement detection in so-called Sanctuary Cities where they live and work among innocent Americans, who may later become their crime victims,” it says.Trump has long promised legal action against sanctuary states and cities, which are largely led by Democrats.

An AP reporter Wednesday was barred from attending White House events for the second straight day, as Donald Trump’s administration sought to justify its actions against media that refuse to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”A day earlier the Associated Press said its reporter was blocked from covering an Oval Office signing because the AP “did not align its editorial standards with President Donald Trump’s executive order” that renamed the body of water as the Gulf of America.On Wednesday the reporter for the 180-year-old media organization was again prevented from attending an Oval Office event, the swearing in of new Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.Asked about the restriction, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Trump administration was guarding against media “lies.””We reserve the right to decide who gets to go into the Oval Office,” Leavitt told reporters, describing the act of asking questions of the US president an “invitation” and not a right.”If we feel that there are lies being pushed by outlets in this room, we are going to hold those lies accountable,” Leavitt said. “It is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America. And I’m not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that, but that is what it is.”She noted how the US secretary of interior has officially designated the new name, and that Google and Apple have both complied with Trump’s executive order and made the changes on their popular map applications used in the United States.In the Tuesday statement, Associated Press Executive Editor Julie Pace called the White House’s decision “alarming.””Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment” right to freedom of speech.Trump has also ordered changing the name of North America’s highest peak from Denali to Mount McKinley, reversing then-president Barack Obama’s 2015 decision to officially recognize the name used by Alaska Natives for centuries.In a style note last month, AP said Trump’s executive order “only carries authority within the United States.””As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences,” it added.However AP said it would refer to Mount McKinley since it “lies solely in the United States and as president, Trump has the authority to change federal geographical names within the country.”

US President Donald Trump revealed Wednesday he expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia for Ukraine peace talks, in an extraordinary thaw in relations after a surprise phone call between the two leaders.In their first confirmed contact since Trump’s return to the White House, the US president said he had held a “lengthy and highly productive” conversation with the Russian counterpart who ordered the bloody 2022 invasion of Ukraine.Trump, who has been pushing for a quick end to the nearly three-year war, also denied that Ukraine was being left out in the cold by the direct negotiations between the two nuclear-armed superpowers.”We expect that he’ll come here, and I’ll go there — and we’re going to meet probably in Saudi Arabia the first time,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office about his plans to meet Putin.Trump said he expected it to happen “in the not too distant future” and added that Saudi Crown Prince Prince Mohammed bin Salman — who played a key role in a Russia-US prisoner exchange this week — would also be involved.The Kremlin said the call lasted nearly one-and-a-half hours. Putin and Trump had agreed that the “time has come to work together” and that the Russian leader has invited his US counterpart to Moscow, it said.Republican Trump had previously promised to end the Ukraine war “within 24 hours” before taking office on January 20.- ‘Make peace’ -Trump took the world by surprise as he announced the call on his Truth Social network earlier, saying they had “both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine,” using an unconfirmed figure for the toll in the conflict.The US president said he and Putin had agreed to “work together very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations” and to “have our respective teams start negotiations immediately” on Ukraine.Trump later called Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was not included on the call with Putin. Zelensky said afterwards that he had a “meaningful” call with Trump in which he had “shared details” of his talks with Putin.Trump said after the conversation that Zelensky “like President Putin, wants to make PEACE.”But the move sparked concerns that Ukraine will be left out of talks on its own fate.Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth told European counterparts earlier Wednesday that Ukraine’s dream of returning to its pre-2014 borders was an “illusionary goal” — and that Kyiv’s wish for NATO membership was “not realistic.”Both are key demands of Moscow.Trump denied that Zelensky was being frozen out, and rejected criticism that Hegseth’s comments meant Washington was agreeing to Russia’s preconditions.He added that NATO membership for Ukraine was “impractical.”The Ukrainian leader is calling for tough security guarantees from Washington as part of any deal with Russia. Trump has meanwhile suggested a deal for Kyiv’s rare earth minerals in exchange for its continued military aid.- ‘Root causes’ -Zelensky is due to meet US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday at the Munich Security Conference, after meeting US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Kyiv on Wednesday.The Kremlin’s statement on the call with Trump was more measured. It said Putin “agreed with Trump that a long-term settlement could be reached through peace negotiations” but said he wanted to “address the root causes of the conflict,” which Russian blames on western influence on Kyiv.There had been signs of a thaw this week with a prisoner swap deal that saw Moscow free US teacher Marc Fogel and Belarus release a US citizen, while Washington released Russian cryptocurrency kingpin Alexander Vinnik.Trump has previously expressed admiration for Putin and heaped praise on the Russian president in his Truth Social post. He said Putin “even used my very strong Campaign motto of, ‘COMMON SENSE.'” and thanked him for Fogel’s release.However, concern has been mounting in Kyiv and European capitals about the shape of a possible deal.The French, German and Spanish foreign ministers insisted Wednesday that there could be “no just and lasting peace” without the involvement of Kyiv and its European partners.burs-dk/jgc

Republicans vowed Wednesday to tackle the “stunning” US national debt, as lawmakers began work on President Donald Trump’s plan for the most radical downsizing of the federal government in decades. The House of Representatives Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee will be the legislative arm of tech billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts as Trump’s right-hand man to save $1 trillion by attacking fraud and waste.Its first hearing — “The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud” — featured testimony from a former FBI agent and the head of a welfare fraud watchdog.”This committee will be laser-focused on bringing full transparency to waste, fraud and abuse within the federal government, and presenting the plans to fix the tremendous problems we expose,” subcommittee chair Marjorie Taylor Greene said in her opening statement.The hearing was convened with government workers staging demonstrations against deep staffing cuts ordered by Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).Critics say the world’s richest man has enormous conflicts of interest as a major government contractor, although Trump — without producing any evidence — claims his “efficiency czar” has uncovered fraud amounting to tens of billions of dollars.A prominent voice on the party’s hard right with a history of bigoted comments, Greene has been brought from the fringes into the center of Republican politics as Trump’s influence has grown.”We, as a country, are $36 trillion in debt. That is such a stunning amount of money,” she told the panel.”It’s absolutely staggering to even comprehend how we as a people, we as a country, found ourselves here.”- ‘Meat axe’ -Musk, newly emboldened by a Trump executive order giving him a veto over government hiring and firing, told reporters in the White House on Tuesday that DOGE was “maximally transparent.”Democrats, initially open to the concept, have soured on Musk over his efforts to dismantle federal agencies, which they say are unlawful and shrouded in secrecy.Democrats have upbraided Republicans for making strident pledges to save money while proposing a budget that would raise the national debt limit by $4 trillion.”We all agree — I’ve said many times — that cutting waste in government and increasing efficiency is a good thing,” Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Party’s leader in the Senate, said in a floor speech.”But what DOGE is doing is something else entirely. DOGE is taking a meat axe and attacking vital programs indiscriminately.”Trump and Musk are facing multiple legal challenges, however, as they try to lift emergency orders blocking the dismantling of federal agencies, holds on grants and the firing of government watchdogs.The White House lost an appeal in Boston on Tuesday upholding a decision to block Trump’s freeze in federal grants and loans.On the same day, Trump fired an inspector general overseeing USAID, after the nonpartisan official filed a report critical of efforts to close the agency.As with all his firings of inspectors general, the move looks on its face to be illegal, as Congress is supposed to be given 30 days’ notice.Meanwhile the Homeland Security Department fired the Federal Emergency Management Agency chief financial officer and three other employees for approving payments for migrant housing in hotels.And Trump’s spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, accused courts “in liberal districts” of abusing their power — although DOGE’s defeats have been delivered by judges nominated by presidents from both parties. 

Donald Trump was appointed chairman of the Kennedy Center on Wednesday, as a new board of trustees loyal to the US president brought his aggressive rightwing, anti-“woke” stamp to Washington’s premier arts venue.Trump first broke the news Friday that he would make himself the Kennedy Center chairman, as he fires off a blitz of policy changes that are upending the city and the country, and attacking people, causes and policies he says are dangerously liberal.As with much that comes with Trump, this is unprecedented: it is the first time a US president has removed his predecessor’s Kennedy Center board chairman and taken the job himself at the stately white marble complex overlooking the Potomac River. It is named for the late president John F Kennedy.In a post Wednesday on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he was elected unanimously by a new board of trustees loyal to him. The center itself confirmed this in a statement.Quoting himself, Trump added: “The President stated, ‘It is a Great Honor to be Chairman of The Kennedy Center, especially with this amazing Board of Trustees. We will make The Kennedy Center a very special and exciting place!’”The appointment is also another form of Trump retribution as he seeks to punish perceived enemies at the outset of his second term in the White House.In his first term, from 2017 to 2021, the Republican regularly skipped the Kennedy Center’s yearly gala event because people slated to receive awards criticized him and said they would not show up if he did.”So we took over the Kennedy Center. We didn’t like what they were showing and various other things,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office late Monday, The Washington Post reported.”I’m going to be chairman of it, and we’re going to make sure that it’s good and it’s not going to be woke.”Trump on Friday lashed out at the institution, calling it too liberal and out of tune with American values.That same day he fired the man serving as chairman, the billionaire Democratic philanthropist David Rubenstein, and other members of the board of trustees.This week Trump appointed a new board made up entirely of people loyal to him.The center’s long-time president, Deborah Rutter, has been fired, the institution said. The Kennedy Center is home to the National Symphony Orchestra and also offers theatre, opera, comedy and other productions.The orchestra’s artistic adviser, the musician Ben Folds, announced his resignation after Trump became chairman.