Art vs. Chaos: Trump and His Latest Moves
I want to stop writing about politics, but the problem is that Donald Trump keeps making strange decisions related to art confirming predictions I made months ago.
Maybe he’s still upset about all the art people created when he lost to Biden, who knows but…
Earlier this month, Donald Trump took the unprecedented step of naming himself as chair of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, one of the nation’s premier cultural centers.
“NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA”, the US president wrote on Truth Social.
Days later, Trump was formally voted in by the board – “unanimously”, he noted on Truth Social in a Putin-esque flourish. “There’s no more woke in this country,” he told reporters.
What really bothers me is that he and his team seem to be following the same path as the Nazis in Germany 80 years ago.
In 1937, leaders of Germany’s Third Reich hosted two simultaneous art exhibitions in Munich. One, titled the Great German Art Exhibition, featured art viewed by the regime as appropriate and aspirational for the ideal Aryan society
The other showcased what Adolf Hitler and his followers deemed “degenerate art” (“Entartete Kunst”). The works, chaotically displayed and saddled with commentary disparaging “the sick brains of those who wielded the brush or pencil”, were produced by the proclaimed enemies of the Reich – Jewish people, communists or those suspected of being either.
The difference is that Donald Trump targets aren’t people of a specific nationality, but those with more liberal peaceful views.
What’s next?
A holocaust for artists? A “Hot Cold War” against climate activists? I’m waiting for something more original from the man in charge of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
As we wait for something more creative from Trump, let artists create the art that will cancel this chaos (I hope in 4 years).
The problem isn’t that Trump has taken an interest in art — the problem is that he doesn’t understand how the art world works, and no one can explain it to him. And it’s not just the art world — this applies to everything.
Amen.
HE 🍦 HE