In his latest draconian budget proposal, Donald Trump called for the elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Trump previously attempted to eliminate the agencies during his first term in office, but was thwarted by bipartisan support for both.
The budget described the potential changes as “consistent with the president’s efforts to decrease the size of the federal government to enhance accountability, reduce waste, and reduce unnecessary governmental entities.”
In March the National Endowment for the Arts removed Trump’s “gender ideology” requirements from grant funding applications in response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU. The move allowed arts organizations to apply for funding without following Trump’s “anti-woke” guidelines.
The National Endowment for the Arts provides funding to arts-related organizations, events, and projects in every congressional district in the United States. Though most grants are not large in size, they can be leveraged to attract major donors, the lifeblood of many small organizations.
The agency was previously led by Maria Rosario Jackson, who announced her resignation after Trump took office for a second time. In her apolitical resignation letter, Jackson praised the organization “for the experience and the honor of working alongside a dedicated and talented team of public servants committed to ensuring all Americans can benefit from the arts.”
Trump’s attacks on the arts and public broadcasting have increased in recent weeks. In February he announced plans to fire several board members of the Kennedy Center for the Arts; in April the organization quietly cancelled a slew of events planned as part of the WorldPride Festival in Washington, D.C., in June.
On Thursday, May 2, Trump issued an executive order that slashed funding for PBS and NPR. The move was met with a wide range of criticism, including from documentarian Ken Burns. While speaking to Anderson Cooper Friday, Burns insisted, “Public broadcasting is “the Declaration of Independence applied to broadcasting. I couldn’t have made, Anderson, any of the films I’ve made, nearly 40 films over the course of the last 45 years, at any other place than PBS.”
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