October marks National Arts and Humanities Month, typically a period for recognizing the creative and intellectual movements that enhance our country. However, this year, the month commenced not with festivities, but with a government shutdown, representing the newest and most impactful strike in the Trump Administration’s ongoing campaign against American culture.
In August 2017, I, along with 15 fellow members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, made a straightforward decision. Following President Trump’s startling unwillingness to clearly denounce neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville, we . Our letter to the president asserted that his endorsement of hate groups and the misleading comparisons he promoted were unacceptable. “Supremacy, discrimination, and vitriol are not American values,” our communication declared. “Your values are not American values.”
We acted because staying silent would have made us complicit in his divisive language. We cautioned that his consistent assaults on art, the humanities, and the free press were moving our nation “further away from the freedoms we are guaranteed.” We anticipated negative developments.
Our concerns proved justified. What we observed back then was merely a foreshadowing. What America confronts today is the primary event: a methodical, direct attack on our country’s cultural and intellectual existence. This calculated approach is detailed in the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” aiming to substitute our varied culture with a singular, ideology.
The initial phase of this offensive involves a strategy of elimination via financial deprivation. The administration has sought to cut federal funding for the (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)—essential components of our nation’s cultural framework. Existing grants have been abruptly withdrawn, leaving community theaters and local museums to contend with unexpected funding shortfalls and doubts regarding costs for ongoing projects.
Currently, with the that started on October 1, this long-feared financial deprivation has materialized, leading to the closure of national museums and the suspension of federal grant disbursements to cultural organizations across the country. The , a vital resource for independent journalism and educational content, particularly in rural American areas, is undergoing systematic dismantling.
The second, more subtle phase involves a strategy of institutional appropriation. The president has of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, removing its bipartisan board and appointing political supporters in their place. Additionally, last month he disbanded its entire Social Impact division. The president now highlights his direct role in choosing honorees, dismissing those considered “too woke” or “too liberal.” The Kennedy Center is being reshaped from a national platform for artistic achievement into a political symbol.
In an even more astonishing action, on the same day the government ceased operations, the White House 22 out of 26 members of the National Council on the Humanities, the expert panel that advises the NEH. This left the council without the necessary quorum to carry out its functions, thereby paving the way for politically influenced grant allocations.
Concurrently, the Trump Administration has launched an attack on our national remembrance. Under the pretext of an executive order titled “Restore Truth and Sanity to American History,” the White House has a thorough examination of the Smithsonian Institution. Its declared objective is to cleanse our national museums of “divisive” or “ideologically driven language”—a veiled reference to any historical scrutiny addressing matters of race or injustice. The oppressive atmosphere is already evident: as a form of dissent, the renowned artist Amy Sherald recently withdrew her upcoming exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, citing worries about censorship.
The president himself has that our museums excessively emphasize “the negativity of slavery.” Rather than reinstating normalcy, these moves represent a government-sanctioned initiative of historical reinterpretation, leading the American Alliance of Museums to release a statement concerning the “increasing dangers of censorship.”
This ongoing assault on our cultural institutions lays the groundwork for explicit acts of censorship. The effort to withdraw funding from the arts, take control of our museums, and alter our history serves as a precursor to suppressing dissent directly. By methodically weakening the very areas that foster critical thought and historical awareness, the Trump Administration might cultivate a citizenry less capable of identifying the core tenets of a free society when they face direct challenge.
This situation is not solely an American misfortune. It mirrors the , page by page. When a government prescribes what art is permissible, we recall the reverberations of Nazi Germany’s “” exhibitions and the Soviet Union’s concept of “.” When a leader takes command of cultural organizations to impose ideological uniformity, we observe a clear resemblance to the methods of in Hungary.
Authoritarian regimes consistently prioritize art as a target. They do this because art and history challenge the narratives essential for a regime’s survival. They promote critical thinking and expose inconvenient truths that weaken nationalist messages. By silencing artists and historians, a regime aims to dictate not only the present, but also the past and the future.
In 2017, we stepped down because our moral convictions required it. Today, with a government shutdown impacting our national museums and the National Endowment for the Humanities severely weakened, the threat has moved beyond mere words to profound, organized measures. This attack jeopardizes our capacity to think critically, recall our history truthfully, and envision a future unconstrained by state control. This is a struggle for the essence of America, and for the preservation of its liberties, it is a fight we cannot afford to lose.
