The New Republic

05/04/2025

For more than half a century, the Kennedy Center has made a priority of representing the rich diversity of American culture and has regularly celebrated artists of color and LGBTQ+ performers. That mission was thrown into doubt the moment Trump and his cronies took over its board. Now, the arts center would serve as a weapon in the president’s war against cultural elites.

Transforming—and MAGA-ifying—the arts have emerged among the president’s more surprising second-term priorities during his first 100 days: Even as the Trump administration has moved quickly to decimate federal agencies and defund top universities and museums, it has not targeted the Kennedy Center and the National Endowment for the Arts with the same gusto, though the Kennedy Center has seen a handful of layoffs. What has emerged instead are at times bewildering gestures toward a more insidious goal: not just chilling art deemed “liberal” and fostering right-wing arts institutions, but establishing a Trump-aligned power base through which to rival the diversity of American culture.

Trump has depicted the Kennedy Center as a crumbling building that he will return to its former glory. Never mind that he has offered few ideas for doing so and has spoken about his plans with his trademark blend of grandiloquence and vagueness. “We’ll make a lot of changes, including the seats, the decor, pretty much everything,” he promised a group of reporters in March. He justified his takeover via social media by claiming that he would put an end to drag shows and “ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA.” (The Kennedy Center hosted thousands of events last year; among them a drag story hour for queer and trans youth and a Mamma Mia! disco-themed drag brunch.) Art, in other words, is not a politically unifying force; it’s just another chance to score shots against wokeism and force liberals to get in line.

The National Endowment for the Arts, which awards tens of millions in grant money each year, could be an even more consequential front in the administration’s larger fight for cultural supremacy, if the administration doesn’t try to kill it, which had been proposed during Trump’s first term. (“Art can survive and thrive without public funding,” urged a recent briefing paper from the libertarian Cato Institute, citing such examples as Gone With the Wind, Harry Potter, and Shakespeare.)

In compliance with executive orders issued by Trump shortly after he was sworn into office, the NEA began asking grant applicants in February to certify that, if selected, they won’t promote “gender ideology,” as such projects are ineligible, or operate “illegal DEI” programs. “Do the historical posters of Rosie the Riveter promote DEI? Does the art of Romare Bearden promote DEI?” questioned Paulette Granberry Russell, president and CEO of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, which sued the administration in February over the anti-DEI order. The NEA had dropped the certification requirements amid ongoing litigation, but the changes have already discouraged some LGBTQ+ artists and allies from applying for grants.

There’s little ambiguity over the kind of art the administration doesn’t like. But what kind of art does it support? In early February, the NEA indicated that projects celebrating the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence would get funding priority, a promise that disappeared from the agency’s website shortly after it prompted confusion and mockery. (The theme had previously been “encouraged” under President Joe Biden, which is the language now.)

At the Kennedy Center, meanwhile, Trump and his allies have espoused a cultural vision that is as inscrutable as it is crowd-pleasing: Christmas, country music, Luciano Pavarotti, Cats. A mix of artists who support the president and performances he personally likes is certainly very Trumpian, but is this really what the president meant when he promised the center was “going to have some really good shows”?