President Donald Trump left the humanities world reeling together with his announcement on Reality Social that he intends to nominate himself chairman of the John F. Kennedy Middle for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and instantly terminate a number of members of the board of trustees, “who don’t share our Imaginative and prescient for a Golden Age in Arts and Tradition.”
Shortly after the information broke Friday, the Kennedy Middle’s web site turned tough to succeed in because of “excessive visitors,” based on a observe on its touchdown web page.
“The Kennedy Middle is conscious of the publish made not too long ago by [the President] on social media,” the humanities establishment stated in a press release over e-mail. “We’ve acquired no official communications from the White Home concerning adjustments to our board of trustees. We’re conscious that some members of our board have acquired termination notices from the administration.”
In its assertion, the Kennedy Middle famous that because it’s inception, the establishment has “had a collaborative relationship with each presidential administration” and “a bi-partisan board of trustees that has supported the humanities in a non-partisan style.”
“[T]he chair of the board of trustees is appointed by the Middle’s board members,” the assertion stated. “There’s nothing within the Middle’s statute that might stop a brand new administration from changing board members; nevertheless, this might be the primary time such motion has been taken with the Kennedy Middle’s board.”
Trump has lengthy had a contentious relationship with the storied arts establishment, thought of the nation’s most prestigious avatar of tradition. In 2017, he and First Girl Melania Trump skipped that 12 months’s Kennedy Middle Honors after being criticized by honorees, marking solely the fourth time within the group’s historical past {that a} president was not in attendance.
The Kennedy Middle is a federal facility licensed by an act of Congress in 1958 and maintains a public-private partnership with the federal authorities, which funds the constructing’s upkeep and operations. Its arts packages, performances and academic initiatives are paid for by means of ticket gross sales and presents from donors.
The present chairman for greater than a decade is businessman and philanthropist David M. Rubenstein. Rubenstein had deliberate to retire final month, however after Trump’s election, it was introduced that he would keep in his position for an extra 12 months. Board members are appointed by the president. At current , there are 36 board members, a few of whom have been appointed by Trump throughout his first time period, together with Lawyer Common Pam Bondi and his former transportation secretary, Elaine Chao.
President Biden crammed various board vacancies throughout his final weeks in workplace, naming, amongst others, former White Home press secretary Mike Donilon. Honorary chairs of the Kennedy Middle embrace first girls Melania Trump, Jill Biden, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama and Laura Bush.
“Simply final 12 months, the Kennedy Middle featured Drag Exhibits particularly focusing on our youth — THIS WILL STOP.” Trump wrote on Reality Social. “The Kennedy Middle is an American Jewel, and should mirror the brightest STARS on its stage from all throughout our Nation.”
This isn’t the primary time within the early days of his second administration that the president has taken a muscular stance towards present cultural organizations. One in all his first acts as president was to dissolve the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, which was established by President Ronald Reagan in 1982 to advise on problems with cultural and creative import.
Trump didn’t say which board members he deliberate to oust in his Reality Social publish.
