President Trump is appointing actor Jon Voight to the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for the remainder of a six-year-term to end in September of 2024.
The actor known for TV roles in hit shows like Ray Donovan and 24 — and for his real-life role as Angelina Jolie’s father — is one of the most outspoken conservatives in Hollywood and he hasn’t shied from his support of Trump.
Voight was a harsh critic of President Obama and was a staple at events hosted by Friends of ABE, a support and networking group for politically conservative members of the Hollywood elite, before the private group disbanded a few years ago.
Trump also said Tuesday he’ll nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, whose daughter is White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, as a trustee to the same board.
Huckabee, who hosts a talk show on a Christian channel, has been an outspoken evangelical backer of Trump.
Others he will nominate are Carl Lindner III of Ohio, Marc Stern and Kelly Roberts of California, Kelcy Warren and Heather Washburne of Texas, Adrienne Arsht of the District of Columbia and Karen Tucker LeFrak and Daryl Roth of New York.
The Kennedy Center board is extensive: It currently has 36 members appointed by the president, along with 21 ex officio members designated by Congress.
Trump declined to attend the venue’s signature event, the Kennedy Center Honors, in the first two years of his term.
In his first year in office, some of the honorees, including Norman Lear, said they would not attend a traditional White House ceremony before the event in protest of Trump’s proposed cuts to the arts.
Last year, the honorees included some of the president’s highest-profile critics, including Cher and members of the cast of “Hamilton.”
The Kennedy Center is the country’s National Cultural Center and it is located adjacent to the Watergate complex on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.
The board of trustees includes a variety of government officials, such as the librarian of Congress and the secretary of Health and Human Services, and the first lady is considered the honorary chair while 36 general trustees are appointed by the president.
The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
President John F. Kennedy famously loved and promoted the arts, inviting authors and musicians to the White House and laying the groundwork for the the National Endowment for the Arts.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the performing arts powerhouse and living memorial in Foggy Bottom that bears his name, pays tribute to his passion for all things creative.
President Lyndon B. Johnson laid its cornerstone shortly after Kennedy was assassinated in 1964 and the center opened in 1971.