(AFP) – US President Donald Trump will on Monday visit the Kennedy Center in Washington for the first time since his stunning takeover of the top arts venue that he branded too “woke.” Trump will lead a board meeting at the venue, where he installed himself as chairman and ousted the leadership a month ago as part of his broader blitz on almost every aspect of American life. The 78-year-old Republican railed in particular against drag shows at the venue, amid a wider targeting of trans issues by his administration since returning to office.
But the changes have faced opposition, with concertgoers booing Vice President JD Vance last week and the hit musical “Hamilton” canceling a planned run at the Kennedy Center. “We have to straighten it out,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday about his visit to the center. “It’s not a good system, like everything else in this country.” The White House said Trump would take part in a board meeting and tour of the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center, named after the US president who was assassinated in 1963. In an extraordinary step, the board meeting will take place onstage at the venue’s opera house, CBS News reported.
Trump’s shake-up stunned the Kennedy center, a fixture of Washington cultural life which is based in a huge white marble edifice overlooking the Potomac river and next door to the infamous Watergate complex. He fired its chairman and trustees and named himself as the new leader in February, an unprecedented takeover of a cultural venue by a US president.
Trump then filled the board with ultra-loyalist allies including his powerful chief of staff Susie Wiles, deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino and Second Lady Usha Vance. At the time, Trump told reporters that “we didn’t like what they were showing” at the center and that once he took over “it’s not going to be woke.” In a Truth Social post he added that the center had “featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP.” The move came amid a wider targeting of trans issues and diversity by the Trump administration, and a crackdown on his political opponents.
In his first term from 2017 to 2021, the Republican regularly skipped the Kennedy Center’s yearly gala event because people slated to receive awards criticized him and said they would not show up if he did. The Kennedy Center is home to the National Symphony Orchestra and also offers theatre, opera, comedy and other productions. Last week Vance and his wife were loudly booed as they entered the concert hall for a performance by the orchestra. Videos of the incident went viral. Meanwhile, the producer of “Hamilton,” the hit rap musical about the birth of the United States and its first treasury secretary, said earlier this month that he was canceling its latest run in protest at Trump’s “purge.” “In recent weeks we have sadly seen decades of Kennedy Center neutrality be destroyed,” Jeffrey Seller wrote.
– Danny KEMP
© 2024 AFP
