Trump wins: NEA chief quits
mainJane Chu will step down in June, apparently exhausted at battling President Trump’s plans to scrap the National Endowment for the Arts. She has done well to keep it up that long.
Report here.
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She may have been tired of the battle but she won the war. According to the Washington Post
“Although targeted by Trump for elimination, the NEA enjoys bipartisan support from Congress, which passed a spending bill — that Trump signed last month — increasing its annual funding to $152 million”.
There are municipal cultural budgets in the EU far larger than the NEA’s. And in the USA, the budget of the Met, for exmaple is over twice as large as the entire NEA budget. The budget of the NEA is so small that it is clear that neither party supports the agency.
This is, indeed, sad news. The next question is whether DJT thinks it best to leave the post vacant, as he has with so many ambassadorships, or appoint someone who is indifferent, or even hostile to the arts, following the format of the Environmental Protection Agency. In the meantime, let us enjoy one more month of Jane Chu.
+1
I see a bright future for Ted Nugent in arts endowment administration.
Ironically, when Trump was part of the NYC society scene he actually had a fairly strong connection with the Met. He attended operas from time to time and I believe it has been said that he actually proposed marriage to Melania at a Met gala. (Although unlike former mayor Bloomberg I doubt whether he actually contributed a lot).
This is ABSOLUTELY not true. Not one word. What is true is that Bill Clinton was the last sitting president to attend the opera (thus sitting int the Presidential Box) and the Clintons go at least once every season, on their own, not guests of some Met trustee or donor. Trump, I addition to not attending, has never given one thin dime to the Met Opera. Much as it pains me to say it, this is fake news…
In perspective: it’s not like Trump supports other causes to any significant extent.
While Trump is famous for exaggerating about his wealth, he is a famous penny pincher when it comes to charities. Tracing his charitable contributions seems to require painstaking research.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/trump-and-the-truth-his-charitable-giving
If you Google it, Trump’s proposal (well, to Melania at any rate) was made at the Metropolitan Museum fashion gala, not the opera.
I apologize. I do remember that a magazine editor (I believe Vogue or Harpers Bazaar) wrote in her memoirs that many years ago she was at a dinner party with Trump, when he was still married to Ivanka, when he complained about having to sit through the Ring Cycle (or at least part of it)
If Trump was married to Ivanka, you really are breaking news here.
I remember Trump suggesting Sylvester Stallone for the position….
Stallone declined the offer.
As is well-known, but the mere thought of it reminds us where we’re at….
The fact that Stallone would likely be the least bad choice speaks volumes of where were at.
Arnold Schwarzenegger would be a better choice. After all, he’s an art collector.
She will have been there for 4 years, which is quite a respectable amount time for such a high profile gig.
Let me see if I’ve got this right: the ‘arts community’ slavishly denounces Donald Trump (even before he actually DOES anything) and then cry ‘wolf’ when he turns back to bite them. As Jordan Peterson would say, “grow the hell up”.
Dear Sue,
I believe you are not an American (nor a thinker, but that’s another discussion). In the U.S. as it has been (not as Trump is trying to turn it into), one can have an opinion that is independent of one’s relationship to the government. In Kazakhstan or any President-For-Life-istan country, for example, it is the opposite.
It sounds to me like you’re a lot more comfortable with how things work in Kazakhstan, and that you’d like to see that here.
Sue, do you follow US news?
He’s being denounced because he already has done something. His budget called for the elimination of the NEA, and the only reason why it’s still in existence is that the congress put it back into the budget. He’s already proved that he has plenty of other ways of at least attempting to destroy an agency if he can’t get his way.
The NEA is always a political football. The conservatives views government support of the arts as overreaching what government should do. (They don’t complain when the businesses in their districts get tax dollars for government purchases).
It is truly a sad day for America where culture is viewed in such disdain, health care is a luxury, and the middle class continues to shrink.
As one writer above has noted, the NEA will end up like the EPA. Led by someone who willingly will work to dismantle it by following the orders of our Fearless Leader.