The private-equity billionaire spent decades building influence in the capital. Then his philanthropy collided with the president.
By Michael Powell, The Atlantic
David Rubenstein, the billionaire investor and philanthropist, sat at a handsome marble table in a handsome conference room in one of the many handsome offices of the Carlyle Group, the global investment firm he co-founded, discussing a bit of personal unpleasantness.
Several weeks earlier, Donald Trump had fired him as the chair of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Rubenstein chairs many elite institutions, but the Kennedy Center might be seen as the capstone of his résumé. Explaining his decision, Trump had posted on Truth Social that Rubenstein did not “share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.” The president announced that the “amazing” new chair of the center would instead be one “DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Rubenstein, who is not accustomed to being fired, at first deflected my questions with gin-dry self-deprecation: “I’m the first person to be fired by a president and succeeded by one.” But the firing stung. Rubenstein has, for decades, converted his extraordinary wealth into soft power, cultivating an ostensibly apolitical brand. He calls himself a practitioner of “patriotic philanthropy,” with a stated mission to remind Americans of their heritage and history in service of a strengthened democracy. As part of that mission, Rubenstein has given away more than $1 billion. His name is stamped all over the Washington region.
