News Reporter: Act Four: Donald Trump, cultural ambassador?

Wednesday 23 November 2016

Act Four: Donald Trump, cultural ambassador?

Alyssa Rosenberg on culture and politics

President-elect Donald Trump at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. (Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images)

Every week, I answer a question from the previous Monday’s Act Four chat in the Wednesday edition of this newsletter. You can read the transcript of the November 21 chat here, and submit questions for the November 28 chat here. The newsletter will take Friday off (though if you visit the blog, I’ll still be writing), so I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all an extremely Happy Thanksgiving. If you need a reading for dinner tomorrow, I hope you’ll check out the first post linked here, which will send you to the late Connecticut governor Wilbur Cross’s remarkable 1936 Thanksgiving proclamation, which is my personal favorite.

And now, to this week’s question!

As my wall of denial about a President Trump is slowly crumbling (though to even write that took a bit out of me), I find myself thinking about what we can expect in terms of this president and the entertainment world. Who will be invited to perform at the [White House]? Ted Nugent? When I think about previous presidents, and really the current one in particular, I think about the richness of what they’ve tried to bring in terms of performers and styles. Now I wonder whether the opportunity to bring any sort of meaningful culture to the [White House] is gone, at least for the time being. In other words, I don’t think we’ll be seeing something like a “Hamilton” command performance anytime soon. And the Kennedy Center Honors? The prospect of cultural icons who might otherwise be prime for recognition saying “no thanks” because they don’t want to have any association with him may not be such a crazy idea.

The president’s role as a cultural ambassador was foremost in my mind earlier this year when I sent a questionnaire to all the candidates asking them how they’d respond to a range of policy issues with implications for the arts and culture. In keeping with his campaign’s former strategy of embracing pretty much all media requests, Donald Trump was the only candidate to get back to me.

He responded to my question “One of the president's roles is to host events that involve arts and entertainment. Who would you ask to sing the National Anthem at your Inauguration? Who would you choose to give a reading? Are there particular artists the First Family would invite to the White House, or arts you would draw attention to as president?” by writing: “First, there is no Constitutional obligation for the President to do what your question implies. That said, supporting and advocating for appreciation of the arts is important to an informed and aware society. As President, I would take on that role. As for identifying people to sing, read or invite to the White House, I will not identify them to save them from the media storm that would surely come. It would not be fair to them.”

Well, the media storm has arrived. I should note that I don’t think Trump dislikes the arts. He seems to enjoy Puccini and Broadway musicals, and he’s worked in media. But I have no idea to what extent he’ll actually find the time or energy to carry out the traditional ceremonial roles of the presidency.

The larger questions, I think, are ones you’ve identified: What artists whose work Trump enjoys would be willing to appear at his White House, or to accept honors such as the National Medals of Arts or the Presidential Medal of Freedom? Should mainstream artists participate in events put on by the Trump administration so they can deliver messages directly to the president, as the “Hamilton” cast did with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, or so they can perform works that rebuke the administration more quietly? Certainly, I’ll be curious to see how the White House Correspondents’ Dinner plays out: It would be distasteful to pretend all is well between news organizations and a president who has suggested that he would like to limit our scope to act.

But the good thing about culture is that it doesn’t live or die on the patronage of the presidency. In fact it often thrives in opposition. There are other stages, and what they have to offer us will be more vital than ever.