What Trump’s Taking Over the Kennedy Center Could Mean for All the Arts

In Monday’s (2/10) Washington Post, Philip Kennicott writes, “President Donald Trump’s proposal to become the chair of the Kennedy Center for the Arts Board of Trustees, install his ally as the cultural center’s director, and exert control over its programming is a clear signal that his second administration will be much more aggressive in its cultural policy than his first one. Breaking with decades of tradition, Trump said he dismissed several political appointees to the Kennedy Center board and would take the seat of the long-serving head of the group … A newly constituted board could elect Trump chair. The idea that the president of the United States … might involve himself with programming at the nation’s cultural center is without precedent in the United States, and most if not all democratic countries. Previous chief executives have advocated for the arts and created organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts, to support them. But Trump… has indicated that he wants to be more than an advocate or patron; he apparently wants a veto over content at one of the country’s preeminent cultural institutions…. The federal government has potentially enormous powers of coercion when it comes to the cultural and nonprofit sector, from the tax code to visas for artists to novel interpretations of antidiscrimination laws. And it looks as if this administration may use them.”