Trump made a big deal out of firing the people who have so successfully managed what until now has been a non-partisan and treasured DC institution we currently know as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For Performing Arts. Or, as it’s usually referred to “The Kennedy Center” and no one confuses it with the Kennedy Space Flight Center down at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Mark my words, and the UGLY ones shown in the title picture. Kennedy’s name will be removed and Trump will have it renamed after himself. I’m sure odds makers in Vegas have an over/under betting line on how many days or weeks it will take for THAT announcement.
Trump you see if “offended” by the “Woke” content of some of the artist’s work be it performance or paintings/sculpture or exhibits at the Kennedy Center. It’s been decades but the times I went there I left delighted that I’d gone. It was a magnificent place and for someone who has been in the performing arts himself quite the treat. I just wish I’d been able to afford to go more often, or to certain productions. It’s true there was a time when the place went through a rough patch but things got straightened out both in the physical plant and the artists and shows featured. It’s been run by people, both on the business side and Artist side who are among the best that can be found. Board members were either patrons of the arts to the point of being near experts themselves, or at least had societal and political connections to help fund keeping it as a premier facility not just in the United States but the world. Artists have dreamed of having their work exhibited there or performing there, whether in the grand main theater or in a smaller performing venue there.
Now that Trumpty is in charge things have changed and fast. Exhibits and performances have been deemed ‘Woke’ and pulled/cancelled and artists/performers themselves have been cancelling at an increasing rate. In just a couple of weeks, for all Trumpty’s crowing about making the place great again the exact opposite has happened. It’s nauseating to think what will replace world class performers and artists. I guess we can count on Lara Trump, Kid Rock, Lee Greenwood and maybe even Ted Nugent, as well as hold a contest for the best creator of those crass paintings on velvet you see sometimes as “Artists” In Residence!
But it gets better, or perhaps worse I guess depending on how you look at it. According to this short article from Raw Story something ‘bigly’ is happening that will do two things. 1) Get Trumpty’s attention, and 2) piss him off into a rage that will prompt yet another all-caps screed! I haven’t looked at the schedule for performances in the months ahead but probably some that would be worth watching are still slated to go on. The issue will be that there won’t be people in the audience to WATCH them:
According to the Post’s Travis Anderson, “In the week following Trump’s announcement, ticket sales dropped by roughly 50 percent compared to the previous week, a stunning aberration, according to several Kennedy Center staff members who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal.”
The linked article began noting what I’ve said about artists cancelling already, but after what I just highlighted notes:
That drop in tickets sold has scheduled artists weighing whether to pull out of appearances.
Case in point, Canadian mystery writer Louise Penny pulled the plug on her scheduled appearance, writing on Facebook, “In DC, but in the wake of Trump taking over, I have pulled out. It was, of course, going to be a career highlight. But there are things far more important than that.”
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt no doubt thought she was being oh so clever and cute when she told reporters “When you go woke you will go broke.” She went on to talk about how Trumpty would as he does with all things restore the place to world class venue. Uh, it already WAS you idiot! The Kennedy Center wasn’t ‘going broke’ but thriving. Not anymore. In a couple of short weeks it’s future both financially and as a place for world class entertainment has nosedived. Given the kinds of stuff Trump will want it’s only going to get worse.
But the MONEY! That’s the part that will have Trumpty’s stubby thumbs pounding his phone “truthing” so hard he breaks the damned thing. For a while he can sell cheap tickets to MAGAs visiting DC to fill up enough seats to keep it from being embarrassing but that won’t last. The place will lose money hand over fist and it takes a LOT of money to maintain a magnificent facility like the Kennedy Center. If it’s not thriving, Trumpty’s REAL goal of having his stupid f**king name in big, fake gold letters (and removing all references to JFK) won’t seem like such a good idea after all.
It makes me both sad and angry to see an institution like The Kennedy Center desecrated this way. But that’s the America we now live in. You know the old saying “Everything Trump touches dies” and Trump has done more than touch The Kennedy Center. He’s grabbed it with both his little ‘d!ck skinners’ (an old Marine term for hands – I’ll leave the rest to your imagination) and it’s a goner. IF we are lucky it won’t fall into such disrepair that it can’t one day be restored to its (now) former glory.
Trump’s own fancy Oscar show red carpet included. guess Jimmy Kimmel’s not invited
Gold toilets will abound.
FAKE gold. Of course.
Felonious criminal and rapist Donny boy Trump is a one-man demolition derby. What a dipshit!
I doubt he has ever gone to a Broadway performance. Because the performers on stage get all the attention, not him.
He was in D.C. for 4 years. He said he never attended anything at the Kennedy Center.
Maybe if they put on a show with pile dancers?