UPDATED, with additional details: On his visit to the Kennedy Center this afternoon, the arts institution’s new chairman of the board, President Donald Trump, was asked by a reporter why it was so important for him to spend his time with the venue and on its lineup.

“You have so much on your plate. Why come here today?” the reporter asked.

Trump answered, “This represents a very important part of D.C., and actually our country, and I think it’s important to make sure that our country is good shape and is represented well. When people look at this — I’ve been hearing for a long time that they come here, and they’re disappointed when they come here. We want them to be excited.”

Just a couple of weeks into his presidency, amid the flurry of executive orders and tariffs, Trump seized control of the Kennedy Center and ensured that he was named chairman. He became the first president to do so, putting him in a position to not only have a say in its programming, but potentially who will be selected when it comes to the annual Kennedy Center Honors.

Trump weighed in on the Kennedy Center selections, which he has previously labeled too woke. After his takeover, a number of artists have canceled shows, including the producers of Hamilton, due for a run next year.

“I never liked ‘Hamilton’ very much,” Trump said. “I never liked it. But we are going to have some really good shows. Come here and watch it, and you will see over a period of time it will improve very greatly physically, and we’re going to get some very good shows. The thing that does well as Broadway hits.”

RELATED: ‘Hamilton’ Producers Cancel Upcoming Kennedy Center Engagement Following Trump Takeover

The Kennedy Center, as Trump noted, already has some on its schedule, in place since before the takeover. That includes Les Misérables.

During his visit, Trump attended a meeting of the Kennedy Center board, which includes Maria Bartiromo, Usha Vance, Laura Ingraham and Susie Wiles. A longtime loyalist, Ric Grenell, is now serving as president of the Kennedy Center.

The Washington Post, which obtained audio of the board meeting, reported that Trump suggested hosting the annual Kennedy Center Honors himself, while names like Paul Anka, Sylvester Stallone, Johnny Mathis and Andrea Bocelli were floated as potential recipients. Also discussed was the possibility of handing out posthumous honors, something that has not been done in the show’s history.

Trump told reporters that the show “got very tired. Very boring. Very radical left.” “I think we’re going to do a very big show. We have some surprises. Some very big surprises.”

CBS, which has aired the show since its inception, has the rights to the show through the end of this year. Over the past decade, there has been an effort to try to appeal to younger and more diverse audiences, with Done+Dusted as producers, and more unconventional choices, like the creative team behind Hamilton, and the Apollo Theater among the honorees.

Trump complained of the physical structure of the Kennedy Center, as well as an expansion that was made in recent years.

“They built these rooms that nobody’s going to use, rooms underground, and I’ve often wondered, what are the big cubes they have outside that block the view?” Trump said. He appeared to be referring to the Reach, the expansion of performing arts, studio and rehearsal spaces that opened in 2019. The expansion added three concrete pavilions that rise from a greenspace roof on the south end of the center.

He also complained that the columns that front the center are “supposed to be covered by something, whether it’s marble or granite or whatever. Bring it into more modern times.”

He also complained of union rules at the center.

“Lee Greenwood wanted to sing a little song today, and because of the cost in the union structure for him to sing a song just for the board, just the board meeting, it was going to cost $30,000. They wanted $30,000 just to move a piano. So you can’t have that.”

Trump praised the acoustics of the Opera House, but said that he wanted to make changes to the seats and decor, “pretty much everything.” That will likely mean a new capital outlay, and Trump didn’t say whether he would recommend federal funds be used, particularly at a time when he and Elon Musk have been on a drive to slash the size of the federal workforce. In taking on the role of chairman, Trump ousted philanthropist David Rubenstein, who was the largest individual donor, having contributed more than $110 million.

Before he left, Trump told reporters that the Kennedy Center “needs a lot of work. We’re going to fix it. We’re going to make it a part of D.C. and the Capitol.”

The center, which opened in 1971, is a modernist structure designed by Edward Durell Stone. Even back then, the structure was criticized as a hulking behemoth isolated from the Mall and the rest of the city. The center’s Grand Foyer is one of the largest rooms in the world. In a scathing review in The New York Times, Ada Louise Huxtable wrote, “The style of the Kennedy Center is Washington superscale, but just a little bit bigger. Albert Speer would have approved.”