Coral Gables-based DNC fundraising chief faces Donald Trump ouster at Kennedy Center

Image via AP.

Donald Trump has aims to remake America’s cultural center in his image, starting with its governing body.

The President plans to remove numerous members of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, including several recently appointed by Joe Biden.

Likely slated for the chopping block: Coral Gables-based lawyer and real estate developer Chris Korge, who has served as Finance Chair of the Democratic National Committee since 2019.

Others facing expulsion include Democratic political strategist Mike Donilon and former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Piere, sources familiar with the pending purge told The Atlantic this week.

Korge, Donilon and Jean-Pierre were among a baker’s dozen of people Biden appointed to the Board of the Kennedy Center — full name: the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — before leaving the White House last month.

Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter confirmed shortly thereafter that she would be stepping down after 11 years in the job. She stressed that her decision was “not related to the politics of who’s in the White House,” noting that for most of the past six years, she had “almost all Trump appointees as (her) Board members.”

“And we’ve had a fantastic era with them,” she added.

The Board’s Chair, philanthropist and Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein, said last month that he planned to stay on until September 2026 while helping to recruit Rutter’s successor.

According to The Atlantic’s Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker, that may not happen. They reported that Trump has been in talks at the White House about installing himself as Chair.

Whether or not that happens remains to be seen. But it’s safe to bet that Korge, who helped build a war chest that delivered the presidency to Biden in 2020, will soon be heading for the door.

Korge, 69, is among the most consistently called-upon national fundraisers in Democratic politics. Since 1992, when Bill Clinton won the presidency, he has been involved in the campaigns of every presidential candidate the party has nominated.

He was Finance Chair under former U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton during her first run for the White House in 2008 and performed similar duties for former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Al Gore, Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas, and former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, among others.

He is a partner at the Korge & Korge law firm, co-chair of airport concession business NewsLink, senior adviser to international banking firm The Americas Group, chair and managing partner of Landko Development and a slew of real estate limited liability companies registered with the Florida Division of Corporations.

His reputation as a Democratic kingmaker stretches back decades.

“There are probably a dozen dealmakers in this town, then there are 30 or 40 wannabes,” Maurice Ferré, the late former Mayor of Miami, once said of Korge. “The king of them all is Chris Korge.”

Eileen Andrews, a spokesperson for the Kennedy Center, told The Atlantic that as of Friday afternoon, the center had not received formal notification from the White House of Trump’s plans to reshape the Board of Trustees.

Located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., the Kennedy Center opened on Sept. 8, 1971. Construction on the center broke ground in 1964, roughly a year after the assassination of its namesake, President John F. Kennedy.

The Kennedy Center is the official residence of the National Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera. It also hosts many other genres of performance art, including theater, dance, classical music, jazz, pop, psychedelic and folk music.

Its Honorary Chairs are all current or former First Ladies, including Jill Biden, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama and Melania Trump.