You might remember of Trump's coup of the arts? The least artistic president is now in charge of the premier arts center in the U.S.!
It’s still called the Kennedy Center. But after President Trump’s takeover, drag performers protested outside while audience members inside worried about what might be in store.The New York TimesBy Shawn McCreeshFeb. 14, 2025It was the night after President Trump had officially taken over the Kennedy Center and made himself its chairman, and two well-dressed Washington women were wandering along the plush red carpet inside its Grand Foyer, so grand it could fit the Washington Monument laid on its side. They reached the eight-foot-tall bronze head of John F. Kennedy that lords over the hall and looked forlornly into his eyes.How much longer, one woman joked to the other, until the statue of the 35th president gets torn down and replaced with one of the 47th? They laughed bitterly.It was just last week that Mr. Trump announced his plan to purge the Kennedy Center’s board of its Biden appointees and to install “an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!” He named one of his most fiercely loyal apparatchiks, Richard Grenell, interim president and proclaimed that there would be no more “ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA” shown. He complained about drag queens performing there and said it had all become too “wokey.” Some artists canceled shows. “Welcome to the New Kennedy Center!” Mr. Trump said on social media, posting an A.I.-generated image of himself waving his arms like a conductor in a concert hall.Most of the people who turned up at the Kennedy Center on Thursday night to see performances in its various theaters had purchased their tickets long before any of that was set in motion. Now they found themselves at an arts center on the cusp of becoming something different — something Trumpian.
Well ever since then performers have been dropping like flies! Some of the shows that have canceled by the Kennedy Center were:
- "A Peacock Among Pigeons: Celebrating 50 Years of Pride," a performance by the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, DC with the National Symphony Orchestra
- Finn
While others have canceled on their own rather than play at the center, they are:
- An Evening With Issa Rae
- Melissa Errico's World War I-themed show
- Manhattan Theatre Club's "Eureka Day"
- The rock band Low Cut Connie
And now... CBS News writes,
The Kennedy Center's board voted unanimously to elect President Trump to be its new chair Wednesday afternoon, as the president reshapes the center's governing body and performances, moving away from what he views as "woke culture," multiple sources told CBS News.
And Trump handed out the plum board positions to some "really creative people" they are so involved with the arts... NOT!
- Second lady of the United States Usha Vance
- White House chief of staff Susie Wiles
- Wiles' mother, Cheri Summerall
- White House deputy chief of staff for national security Dan Scavino
- White House director of presidential personnel Sergio Gor
- Allison Lutnick, wife of commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick
- Pamela Gross, former White House adviser to the first lady
- Donor Patricia Duggan
- Emily May Fanjul, wife of Trump donor and sugar magnate Pepe Fanjul
- The wives of New England Patriots CEO Robert Kraft and New York Yankees President Randy Levine
Somehow I don't see these people as patrons of the arts!
The latest to cancel, Hamilton!
AP NewsBy MARK KENNEDYMarch 5, 2025The megahit Broadway musical “Hamilton” is pulling out of plans to perform at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., next year, citing President Donald Trump’s shakeup of the art institution’s leadership.“Our show simply cannot, in good conscience, participate and be a part of this new culture that is being imposed on the Kennedy Center,” producer Jeffrey Seller said in a statement Wednesday.Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop-flavored biography about the first U.S. treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton, won the best new musical Tony Award, the Pulitzer Prize for drama, a Grammy and the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History. It also earned Miranda a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant.[...]“We are not acting against his administration, but against the partisan policies of the Kennedy Center as a result of his recent takeover,” said Seller. “These actions bring a new spirit of partisanship to the national treasure that is the Kennedy Center.”
I first found this story on Yahoo News... here are some of the comments that were posted on the article (Take your blood pressure meds first!):
- When did Marxism equal neutrality? I do not recall any Italians in Hamilton. The cast was supposed to represent America?
- Since when was Alexander Hamilton BLACK?
- TRUMP the musical. Kid Rock will be in charge of the symphony. Elon Musk will be in charge of choreography.
- Kennedy Center is for snobs.
- Kennedy Center was never for all Americans and politically neutral---it has always been for liberals and democrats only
- Good riddance. These people were trying to distort history anyway. They can perform now in their mother country instead of our beloved USA
This reminds me of the Wendy's commercial about the Soviet Union fashion show where models wear identical outfits, emphasizing the lack of choice in communist societies. Like Trump & Company is doing now bring us down to the lowest common denominator! Will the Kennedy Center become a show place for Trumps artist friends?
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