FACE OUR FEARS: On Monday, Trump took some time out from signing executive orders dismantling DEI and bringing back segregation in order to visit the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to criticize the venue.
He said the venue was in “tremendous disrepair, as is a lot of the rest of our country, most of it because of bad management.”
CNN reported that at one point on the balcony, he turned to Kennedy Center trustees Grenell and Sergio Gor, who joined him in the box, and said, “I’ll tell you what, Ric, why don’t you stand back?” Trump stepped to the center with no one else in view.
The president, lit by a spotlight, posed for photographers in his press pool below, “Do you want a little picture like this?” Arms outstretched, directly above the presidential seal, it was an image evocative of actress Patti LuPone in Trump’s favorite musical, “Evita.”
But it was giving more Mussolini than Eva Peron.
And in case you forgot, on February 12, Trump dismissed the existing board of trustees in February, as well, justifying this head-scratching move by saying he wanted the Center to move away from “woke” programming and instead aimed to showcase a vision of the United States aligned with his own anti-woke, anti-everyone-but-him-and-people-who-look-like-him-and-agree-with-him ideology.
He replaced them with loyalists like AG Pam Bondi, FOX News’ Laura Ingraham, White House COS Susie Wiles and Second Lady Usha Vance.
According to Broadway World, Deborah Rutter, the Kennedy Center’s former president said she was “really, really, really sad about what happens to our artists, what happens on our stages and our staff who support them,” since Trump took over. She was dismissed shortly after Trump’s self-installation.
REALITY CHECK: In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed bipartisan legislation establishing a National Cultural Center in Washington, D.C.
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy led a major fundraising campaign for its construction, with support from the former president. Following Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Congress officially renamed the center after him, honoring his dedication to the performing arts. Since then, the Kennedy Center has served as a beacon for the arts in America.
So why does Trump seem to care so much about the Center, anyway?
The Bulwark reported that during his first term, the Kennedy Center was a source of particular irritation: Honorees at its annual awards ceremony had an annoying habit of using the occasion to protest his presidency. After appointing himself the chairman, he has put himself in the power seat to essentially pick the honorees himself.
But why is this important?
This is all part of how authoritarianism works so it can sink its teeth into the culture, trying to twist and force everything to bend towards control of not just the government, but society as a whole — pushing people into little boxes, demanding that they conform to white supremacist, patriarchal structures that demean and diminish individuals who should be free to express themselves and be seen in their full humanity.
For instance, drag performers are no longer allowed to perform at the Kennedy Center, and they canceled the Gay Men’s Chorus as well as the highly acclaimed children’s musical “Finn.”
In a Feb. 14 article, Playbill magazine reported that the creators and composers of “Finn” released a statement denouncing the cancellation as an expression of bias against a theme of “love and acceptance” that could be “read as a metaphor for the LGBTQ+ experience.”
Love and acceptance? We wouldn’t want that. Not in Trump’s America.
Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other. - In solidarity, Natalie
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