Authored by Philip Wegmann via RealClearPolitics,
As the Trump administration slashes and burns its way through Washington, D.C., in search of waste, fraud, and abuse to eliminate, one area of the federal budget remains conspicuously off limits for cuts: The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
The White House is leaning on a Republican Congress to spend big to preserve and rebuild the marquee center for the arts favored by a beltway elite. The administration has lobbied lawmakers behind the scenes for over a quarter of a billion dollars in new funding.
And Congress seems set to deliver.
When the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved a budget reconciliation proposal earlier this week, including $241,750,000 for repairs to the center itself and another nearly $15 million for operating and administrative expenses, the White House was thrilled. In fact, they were directly involved. A source with direct knowledge told RealClearPolitics that the administration “collaborated with members on Capitol Hill through every step of the process.”
Republicans aren’t the typical patrons of the arts, and conservatives argue that taxpayer dollars shouldn’t prop up liberal cultural expression. The Heritage Foundation, for instance, has long recommended that the public-private opera house be cut off. According to that Trump-friendly think tank, privatizing the Kennedy Center entirely would save hundreds of millions in public funds each year.
But Trump plans on building instead. Reviving the Kennedy Center, a White House official told RCP, remains “essential” to his “vision of restoring greatness to our nation’s capital.”
This may puzzle the cultural and political elites who balked when Trump named himself chairman, fired the old board, and installed loyalists as trustees earlier this year. Protests followed. Most notably this included a troupe of 34 dancers, who silently performed The Nelken Line on the steps of the center earlier this year and who earned widespread derision on conservative corners of the internet.
The White House sees at least two problems with the Kennedy Center. First, it has become “woke.” While the center hosts a variety of programming, last year it hosted a number of drag brunches on its rooftop and booked a performance of a “Drag Salute to Divas” on the Millenium Stage. A White House called ending that kind of “anti-American propaganda” as critical “to protecting children and fostering patriotism.” Second, it has become “broke.” Visiting the facilities earlier this spring, the president bemoaned how the theater had fallen into “tremendous disrepair.”
Hence the coming overhaul of the infrastructure and changes to the programming.
“President Trump recently toured the Kennedy Center and saw first-hand how waste, fraud and abuse has robbed America’s premier arts center. The back of the house and the front of the house have been left in an embarrassing state,” said Ambassador Richard Grenell, whom Trump appointed president of the center.
The White House was looking past “partisan politics” to restore excellence in the arts, Grenell told RCP, because Trump “believes we deserve to have a national arts center that all Americans can be proud of.”
This is too much for some thespians. The hit musical Hamilton canceled its run at the Kennedy Center earlier this year in protest to changes Trump made to the board. Jeffery Seller, the producer of that show, wrote on social media that the changes fly “in the face of everything this national center represents.” The president has never cared for that musical. He prefers other Broadway shows. During his March tour of the center, Trump was overheard by reporters discussing a number of other musicals, including “Phantom of the Opera,” “Camelot,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Cats,” and “Hello, Dolly!”
While Washington powerbrokers can often be found on the red carpets of the theater, Trump largely avoided it during his first term. When winners of the 2017 Kennedy Center Honors threatened a boycott, the president and first lady Melania Trump bowed out “to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction.” Meanwhile, many Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, an ex-officio member of the board, regularly attend.
Audiences are decidedly liberal – judging, at least, from the reception that Vice President J.D. Vance and second lady Usha Vance received when they stepped into the presidential box for a National Symphony Orchestra concert in March. The crowd booed. A heckler shouted, “You ruined this place!”
Less than two months later, the administration has green-lit hundreds of millions to renovate it.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 05/06/2025 – 19:15
