# Trump is Made Chair of the Kennedy Center **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [February 12, 2025, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248 "2025-02-12T21:55:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2025, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/21 "2025-02-13T03:12:49Z")
I read the thread title too literally and thought he’d become wooden furniture. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2025, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/22 "2025-02-13T03:20:18Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Gotta make sure that the “right” people get to perform and get honors and so on. Yes, he doesn’t want any suggestion of trans or gay issues, because what does the gay community have to do with entertainment, right? Just wholesome stuff. It reminds me of a bit in Shirer’s _The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich_, where the Nazis had a show of “degenerate art”, to show how badly the pinkos and gays were destroying Classical German art. The Nazis had to close the exhibit because it was attracting more lines of people wanting to see it, than the stodgy classical art galleries. ---
**Author:** ![papermache](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@papermache](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/papermache)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2025, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/23 "2025-02-13T03:28:35Z")
Remember [Saparmurat Niyazo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saparmurat_Niyazov)? “He was the first secretary of the Communist Party of Turkmenistan from 1985 until 1991 and supported the 1991 Soviet coup attempt. He continued to rule Turkmenistan as president for 15 years after independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.” “He promoted a cult of personality around himself and imposed his personal eccentricities upon the country, such as renaming Turkmen months and days of the week to references of his autobiography the Ruhnama.[7] He made it mandatory to read the Ruhnama in schools, universities and governmental organizations; new governmental employees were tested on the book at job interviews and an exam on its teachings was a part of the driving test in Turkmenistan.” ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2025, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/24 "2025-02-13T03:36:59Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > And you’re surprised by this? I didn’t have this on my bingo card. I’m surprised but not shocked. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2025, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/25 "2025-02-13T03:46:04Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Yes, he doesn’t want any suggestion of trans or gay issues, because what does the gay community have to do with entertainment, right? Just wholesome stuff. > > It reminds me of a bit in Shirer’s _The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich_, where the Nazis had a show of “degenerate art”, to show how badly the pinkos and gays were destroying Classical German art. Also similar to the “socialist realist” arts movement in Stalin’s USSR. Only art that meets with the approval of the regime will be permitted. Thus, classical music is encouraged, not that degenerate jazz, and later rock, from America. Paintings were created to show off the successes of Soviet socialism (hence the movement’s name), so there were a lot of proud workers in tractor factories, farm workers showing off a bountiful harvest, and Soviet soldiers being welcomed in the most recent invasion of places like Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Even literature was subject to socialist realism. Yes, works criticizing the USSR were still written, but they couldn’t be published. Some manuscripts managed to get to the west, where they were published, however. The arts should be something to be watched as Trump goes forward. First amendment be damned; I’d worry that if a writer writes, or a painter paints, or a composer creates something about the things Trump doesn’t like (LGBTQ+, visible minorities, etc.), then Trump won’t allow it to be published, shown, or performed. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2025, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/26 "2025-02-13T03:53:33Z")
A classic example of socialist realism comes from China: _The Founding Ceremony of the Nation_. It had to be touched up occasionally, as founders of the nation shown in the painting were discovered to be traitors to socialism and had to be deleted. (And occasionally added back in, when it was determined that they had been true socialists all along and rumours to the contrary came from untrustworthy revisionist running dogs.) > **[The Founding Ceremony of the Nation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Founding_Ceremony_of_the_Nation)** > > The Founding Ceremony of the Nation (or The Founding of the Nation) is a 1953 oil painting by Chinese artist Dong Xiwen. It depicts Mao Zedong and other Communist Party officials proclaiming the People's Republic of China at Tiananmen Square on October 1, 1949. A prominent example of socialist realism, it is one of the most celebrated works of official Chinese art. The painting was repeatedly revised, and a replica painting made to accommodate further changes, as some of the leaders it depicte... ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2025, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/27 "2025-02-13T11:12:35Z")
There’s the old apocryphal story about the Nazis wanting to destroy the statue of Mendelssohn in Prague as he had Jewish heritage. They go up onto the roof of the concert hall and are faced with an array of statues with no name plates. So they pick the one with the biggest nose and smash it. Turns out that they destroyed the statue of Wagner by mistake. Those wacky Nazis! ---
**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2025, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/28 "2025-02-13T12:52:56Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Also similar to the “socialist realist” arts movement in Stalin’s USSR. Only art that meets with the approval of the regime will be permitted. Thus, **classical music is encouraged** , not that degenerate jazz, and later rock, from America. Paintings were created to show off the successes of Soviet socialism (hence the movement’s name), so there were a lot of proud workers in tractor factories, farm workers showing off a bountiful harvest, and Soviet soldiers being welcomed in the most recent invasion of places like Hungary and Czechoslovakia. (Bolding mine) But only the right kind of classical music. Composers were forced to conform to Soviet aesthetics. The Zhdanov decree, [published on 11 February, denounced six artists—Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian, Shebalin, Popov, and Myaskovsky, in that order—for the crime of “formalism”, described as a “renunciation of the basic principles of classical music” in favor of “muddled, nerve-racking” sounds that “turned music into cacophony”.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Prokofiev#Postwar) As a result, they were “lectured” on how to write good music. [Desperate to find acceptable melodies, composers incorporated folk tunes into their music. Some composers, Prokofiev and Shostakovich included, turned to film music. Shostakovich, among others, withheld his more expressive and perhaps controversial works until after Stalin’s death](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhdanov_Doctrine) ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/29 "2025-02-15T07:57:35Z")
He’s already cancelled a tour of a Kennedy Center produced show that is a little too “woke” despite it doing well at its Kennedy Center run. > **[Kennedy Center Cancels Children's Musical Finn; Creators Say 'We Will Not Be...](https://playbill.com/article/kennedy-center-cancels-childrens-musical-finn-creators-say-we-will-not-be-silenced)** > > Meanwhile, artists such as Issa Rae and Renée Fleming have voluntarily cut ties with the now-Trump-controlled organization. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/30 "2025-02-15T08:18:32Z")
How soon before the only people willing to perform at the Kennedy Center (soon to be renamed the Trump Center, as a poster in another thread suggested) are Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, and Lee Greenwood? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/31 "2025-02-15T13:58:24Z")
Maybe the Village People as well as they are somehow a Trump favorite: [_It’s worth taking a moment to note what absolutely dogshit musical taste Donald Trump has. You can hear a lot of his favorite songs in that campaign event he did with Kristi Noem, where his brain appeared to short out and he alternated between dementia-swaying along to Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman (here comes the hygienic disgust again!) and “Ave Maria” and “Memory” from Cats and, of course, Trump’s favorite gay bareback bathhouse sex anthem “Y.M.C.A.”_](https://substack.com/home/post/p-156864782#:~:text=It%E2%80%99s%20worth%20taking,Once%E2%80%9D%20dance%20to.) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/32 "2025-02-15T14:27:08Z")
> Meanwhile, artists such as Issa Rae and Renée Fleming have voluntarily cut ties with the now-Trump-controlled organization. There have already been others as well. I predict a steady exodus of artists, followed by the exodus of donors, though Musk or Peter Theil might chip in to keep the place afloat for Kid Rock concerts and the like. This also affects the National Symphony Orchestra, whose chief advisor also just quit. So, as with everything that Trump touches, two revered national institutions are turning to shit. ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/33 "2025-02-15T14:46:37Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > > Meanwhile, artists such as Issa Rae and Renée Fleming have voluntarily cut ties with the now-Trump-controlled organization. > > There have already been others as well. I predict a steady exodus of artists, followed by the exodus of donors, though Musk or Peter Theil might chip in to keep the place afloat for Kid Rock concerts and the like. This also affects the National Symphony Orchestra, whose chief advisor also just quit. So, as with everything that Trump touches, two revered national institutions are turning to shit. . This makes me deeply sad. I’ve always enjoyed going to the Kennedy Center. Don’t know what will be offered in the future or if I will even want to go again. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/34 "2025-02-15T14:57:30Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > followed by the exodus of donors Looks like private donations and ticket sales are the largest portions of their income. Emperor Trump’s move could hurt the Center. Probably what he is aiming for. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/35 "2025-02-15T15:37:59Z")
It will crash and burn and then Trump will buy the building at a discount and create the Trump Center, as a private institution. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/36 "2025-02-15T16:26:15Z")
> [@wguy123](#): > > Looks like private donations and ticket sales are the largest portions of their income The traditional donors will be replaced by mega rich Trump loving sociopaths. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/37 "2025-02-15T16:31:54Z")
Looking forward to _Birth of a Nation: The Musical_ ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/38 "2025-02-15T16:57:57Z")
On a double bill with _Springtime for Donald_ ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/39 "2025-02-15T20:51:04Z")
Like most everything else, Trump must have seen a different move in **Tar** than the rest of us. A place to throw his weight around as he had at his beauty pageants, a chip on the shoulder (in his case from the Bronx instead of Tar’s Staten Island), and the impunity to pluck sex partners and fillip loyal employees with equal indifference. [Fillip](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fillip). Word for today! ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2025, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248/40 "2025-02-15T23:34:59Z")
Can Trump execute a similar takeover of the Smithsonian, with subsequent closing of woke museums like the Museum of African American History and Culture and the Museum of the American Indian, the whitewashing of the Museum of American History, and having the Air and Space Museum change exhibits to show that Trump invented the airplane, broke the sound barrier, and walked on the moon? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-made-chair-of-the-kennedy-center/1014248.md?page=3)