Trump provides his identify to the Kennedy Center, Washington’s nice cultural middle, with out Congress | Culture | EUROtoday

In a development already widespread in Donald Trump’s Washington, what started as a joke grew to become an extravagant actuality this Friday. It was when some staff started early within the morning (native time) to put on the façade of the Kennedy Center (KC), a fantastic middle for music and the performing arts within the American capital, the identify of the American president in block letters, together with that of one in every of his most illustrious predecessors in workplace: John F. Kennedy.

They had been complying with a call adopted the day earlier than unanimously by the KC board, whose members Trump employed in February, originally of his second presidency. He did so underneath the pretext that the cultural middle had been co-opted throughout Joe Biden’s presidency by the “ideology virus.” woke“The vote was not a surprise, given that the Republican had been playing with that idea for months. Nor was it to see to what extent Washington has been filled after his return to power with allies willing to comply without asking too many questions with Trump’s wildest plans.

It is not clear, however, that the movement is legal. The KC received that name in 1964 by a decision of the US Congress, so it is understood that any maneuver to rename it would have to come from that same solemn place. True to his impatient personality, Trump did not have time to wait, perhaps aware that the Republicans, who dominate both chambers on Capitol Hill, have recently begun to demonstrate a certain (and unprecedented) tendency to contradict him.

And that is how this Friday four workers climbed onto a mobile scaffolding to begin the task of placing the first of the letters, the “D”, for Donald, so that the center passes in fact from now on to be called The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. The complex, which hosts about two thousand events a year, whether produced by itself or by others, has several halls, but, above all, two: the symphony (with capacity for about 2,500 seats) and the opera theater (about 2,300).

The gesture culminates a year in which the president of the United States has frequently visited a place that he did not set foot during his first term, has given free rein to his passion as a decorator, ordering, for example, that the golden columns outside be painted white, has canceled programs that he considers contrary to MAGA ideology (such as the Christmas concert of the Washington Gay Men’s Chorus, which was held successfully last weekend, far from the KC) and has ultimately put him at the service of his interests, also personal ones.

The world cup draw

Two events this month have exemplified the new normal at the performing arts center. One is the great social event of the year: the annual gala that honors outstanding cultural personalities; in this case, Sylvester Stallone or the musicians the disco diva Gloria Gaynor and the rock band Kiss. The other was the World Cup draw, which forced them to cancel previously acquired commitments so that the complex would be available for a week. That show, in which Trump received a consolation prize given that he did not win the Nobel Peace Prize, was closed by a performance by the Village People – or rather, what remains of the Village People -. The group performed YMCAthe president’s favorite song.

In recent months, there have been voluntary cancellations of musicians (Rhiannon Giddens) and actresses (Issa Rae). Soprano Renée Fleming and singer-songwriter Ben Folds, who held advisory positions at the KC, resigned. And the company of dancer Alvin Ailey will take its annual residency to another theater in the city next February. There have also been declines among season ticket holders, and several analyzes by the American media have certified a drop in ticket sales that the White House denies. It may lack scientific validity, but any regular at the concerts of the National Symphony Orchestra or the productions of the National Opera knows that it is easier than before to get tickets and that offers to do so at a low price are also more frequent.

The news that the board had voted for the name change was given by White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt on Thursday, with a message in X, which could be read as another proof that the Trump Administration is rather at odds with reality. “I just learned that the Kennedy Center’s highly respected Board of Directors, made up of some of the most successful people in the world, just voted unanimously to change the name of the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center, because of the incredible work President Trump has done over the last year to save the building,” Leavitt wrote. “Congratulations to Trump, and President Kennedy, because they will be a truly great team for a long time!”

Among the members of the board, chaired by Trump himself, other names stand out without proven experience in cultural management, such as his envoy to Venezuela, Ric Grennell, his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, the director of the White House personnel office, Dan Scavino, the wife of the Secretary of Commerce, Allison Lutnick, or the second lady, Usha Vance.

The move to rename the KC is reminiscent of other decisions by Trump, who has not hesitated to break with the tradition and decorum of the office he holds for the second time by encouraging a Treasury Department plan to mint a coin with his effigy to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the country’s independence, which will be celebrated next year, and by placing his face on a large canvas in the Department of Labor next to that of Franklin Roosevelt, the president of the New Deal, or on access cards to the national parks along with that of Teddy Roosevelt, who is credited with being the father of the protection of these natural spaces.

A mass by Leonard Bernstein, commissioned by Jacqueline Onassis to honor the memory of her first husband, served to inaugurate on September 8, 1971 a monumental performing arts center named after the president assassinated almost eight years earlier. At the Kennedy Center, which was actually Dwight Eisenhower’s idea, power rubs shoulders with melomania on the banks of the Potomac.

Starting this Friday, that place can be a tribute to Donald Trump himself.