WSJ: On The Kennedy Center’s “MAGA Makeover”

June 8, 2025 The Arts, Trump Administration

The Wall Street Journal reports:

When the curtain rises in the John F. Kennedy Center Opera House for a performance of “Les Misérables” this week, President Trump is scheduled to be surrounded by supporters who have paid up to $2 million to watch the musical with him. A coup de théâtre earlier this year put the president and his deputies in charge of programming, fundraising and staff at the famous cultural center. Now, a president who skipped Kennedy Center performances during his first term will stride into an institution he has bent to his will.

New leaders Trump installed have dropped programs with whiffs of wokeness, threatened to go after artists who boycott it and asked employees to take part in a group prayer session. The tumult has worsened the center’s financial prospects, depressing ticket sales. Trump’s team is in the throes of a fundraising push that extends to wealthy donors and foreign officials. A Housecommittee in May proposed a budget that called for $257 million to be allocated to the Kennedy Center, more than five times the amount in previous years.

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