Trump has gotten rid of many of the checks and balances that could stop him from demolishing the Kennedy Center

Filed 3h ago · Via The Conversation · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Gypsy Shoegazer No Voices

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Kinan168 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

An arts management scholar lays out how oversight of the Kennedy Center has collapsed: Congress funds it but stays silent, Trump chairs its restructured board and appointed most trustees, and federal agencies that might otherwise scrutinize the board are cooperating with the White House instead. That leaves federal courts as nearly the only check, where a judge already found the board 'derelict' in its duties and two lawsuits remain pending.

Revenue from performances fell sharply after the 2025 takeover, with artists canceling engagements even before Trump floated closing the center for repairs. Meanwhile Trump demolished the White House East Wing and built a new helipad without congressional sign-off, a pattern the piece treats as precedent for what may come next at the Kennedy Center.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A memorial with the oversight kicked out from under it is just a building waiting for somebody's mood to decide its fate. When the board, the funders, and the enforcement agencies all report to the same guy holding the gavel, that's not checks and balances, that's a one-man show with a very large stage. The audience noticed and stopped buying tickets before the critics even weighed in.

Source: Read the original at The Conversation → Scored: Gypsy Shoegazer No Voices · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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