Of all Trump’s depraved doings, this one has really captured the public’s attention and ire. It’s a personal slap in the face to JFK and his memory, to the arts, to Washington. It has gotten national attention and has truly galvanized the District.
I lived and worked in DC for about eight years. It was an extraordinary town then, with plenty of problems, yes, and Trump is now doing all he can to destroy it.
Trump knows that supporters of the arts are mostly liberal. He knows of course that all the artists who were booked there cancelled when he packed the Center’s Board and announced himself chairman. Putting his name on the building was a colossal affront not only to the commemoration of JFK but to everyone who loves the arts. Now he escalates to threats of demolishing the place. (Which the courts have stopped for the moment.)
All this has become personal to many of us. The best piece I’ve seen on that score is by Robin Givhan of the Times. She describes her personal attachment to the place as a “living memorial” with “a distinctly retro vibe.” It has hosted everyone from the National Symphony to a Marvin Gaye tribute. It attracted pols like Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia. It celebrated dance companies like Alvin Ailey’s and Martha Graham’s, jazz ensembles, opera companies.
What gets not enough mention in all of this is the insult to the memory of JFK. That memory has apparently lapsed for some oldsters, but I recall with vivid clarity the day he was shot in 1963. I was teaching a class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when someone ran in and told us the news. Class was dismissed and my wife and I repaired to a bar to watch events unfold on TV while we drank too much. Kennedy was godlike to many people.
David Remnick has a good appraisal here. He cites a speech by JFK on the subject of art and the artist:
We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth. In free society, art is not a weapon, and it does not belong to the sphere of polemics and ideology. Artists are not engineers of the soul. It may be different elsewhere. But democratic society—in it, the highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may.
yes. wondering whether the inordinate amount of attention Trump has paid to this marginal ornament is creating a reaction that will ultimately hurt him more than the really big stupid acts like the tariffs or war. He’s succeeded in making this a national focal point– for better or worse.