Trump's F****** with Culture and Civil Society Harms the Nation and Washington DC

Normally government moves pretty slow. The pace at which President Trump is destroying institutions and enriching his family, while spending much of his time playing golf, staying up late, and tweeting, is unprecedented. It's almost impossible to keep track.

Good thing he had the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 blueprint to destroy progressive leaning government! ("The year Trump broke the federal government," Washington Post).

Including attacking nonprofit, progressive leaning organizations ("Trump's Secret War Against Vital Nonprofits," Alliance for Justice, "What is Trump doing to US nonprofits and philanthropies?," Devex. "Progressive Nonprofits Condemn Trump’s Targeting of George Soros and His Foundations," Chronicle of Philanthropy, "Senate GOP Ramps Up Attacks on Left-Wing Nonprofits," NonProfit Quarterly).

MAGA-fying civic education ("Trump Administration Announces New Civics Effort With MAGA-Aligned Groups," NYT) plus prayer in schools ("Trump wants prayer back in schools. Boston has a cautionary tale," Boston Globe).

And specific attacks on "blue" states although not limited to culture ("Trump is waging war on Democrat-led states," Globe).

Banner at the Kennedy Center calling it the "Nation's Cultural Center."  Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI.

Because the arts and education are seen as dominated "by the left" the Trump Administration has been militant about defunding organizations that support or practice these disciplines.

The same goes for nonprofit organizations involved in human services, agriculture and other fields.

Work continues on the construction of the ballroom at the White House on 9 December in Washington DC, where the East Wing once stood. Photograph: Pablo Martínez Monsiváis/AP

Here's a line up of some of the destruction.

• Kennedy Center ("Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center is showier, emptier and more political" Washington Post).  Each week it gets worse as the KC gives free space to FIFA, discounts rentals for conservative conferences, sees artists continuing to cancel scheduled performances, adds his name to the Kennedy Center and last week, the National Opera leaving the facility and ending its co-management agreement ("Washington National Opera Is Leaving the Kennedy Center," NYT).
• Smithsonian Institution ("Trump’s assault on the Smithsonian: ‘The goal is to reframe the entire culture of the US’," Guardian. "White House threatens Smithsonian funds in sweeping content review," Post) which started by targeting the National Museum of African American History and Culture ("Trump Once Praised the Black History Museum That He Is Now Attacking," New York Times) and the National Portrait Gallery ("Smithsonian rejects Trump’s attempt to fire National Portrait Gallery director," Guardian, "National Portrait Gallery makes changes to Trump part of 'America's Presidents' exhibit, NBC).  
• This has a chilling effect on museums more generally ("As Trump Targets the Smithsonian, Museums Across the U.S. Feel a Chill," NYT).
• Defunding "left leaning" public media: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS and NPR ("Congress rolls back $9 billion in public media funding and foreign aid," NPR, "Corporation for Public Broadcasting votes to shut itself after funding cuts," CNN).
• Defunding the National Endowment of the Humanities ("Congress Moves to Protect NEA and NEH Funding," Artnet), National Endowment of the Arts ("Sweeping cuts hit NEA after Trump administration calls to eliminate the agency," NPR) and the Institute for Museum and Library Studies ("Libraries and museums get federal funding back after Trump cuts," NPR).
• Museums more generally   According to the NYT, one-third of the nation's museums have lost some government funding since Trump's second term ("Facing Funding Cuts and Censorship Threats, Museums Band Together," NYT).
• K-12 Education including the dismantling of the Department of Education without Congressional approval, and the defunding of a wide variety of programs including foreign languages ("Trump's Threat to Bilingual Education," Progressive), the support of charter schools and private school vouchers wreaking havoc on traditional public education systems ("Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities," White House, "Public Education Under Threat: 4 Trump Administration Actions To Watch in the 2025-26 School Year," American Progress. "Trump Redirects Millions to Historically Black Colleges, Charter Schools," NYT), and encouraging changes to curricula, especially wrt ethnic studies (don't forget the 1776 Curriculum from his first term), ("How Politics Is Changing the Way History Is Taught," NYT).
• Universities are being attacked, using the playbook of Hungary's Orban ("Forging, Bending, and Breaking: Enacting the “Illiberal Playbook” in Hungary and Poland," Perspectives on Politics, "What the Republican ‘siege’ on New College means for the future of Harvard," "How Harvard became Trump’s perfect target," Boston Globe) attacking "diversity, equity, and inclusion" initiatives, advocating for conservative classes, claiming anti-semitism ("‘Attack the universities’: Inside the Trump and MAGA war on Harvard," Boston Globe, "Universities Need a New Defense," Chronicle of Higher Education), severely cutting back on scientific and general research ("Harvard says majority of research funding canceled by Trump has been restored," Boston Globe), seeking payoffs ("MIT Rejects Proposed Federal Compact," Inside Higher Education), and reducing the matriculation of international students, forcing some universities to make major cuts ("nternational student enrollment decline could cost $1 billion," CNN).

• National Park Service cultural interpretation aimed at not fully explaining negative elements of US history like slavery or extermination of Native Americans ("National park visitors to be encouraged to report ‘negative’ depictions under new order," NextStar). Plus aiming to defund and privatize national parks and other public lands.

And building grandiose monuments to his ego

• Tearing down and rebuilding the East Wing of the White House ("Trump’s Vision of a Mar-a-Lago on the Potomac Upends an American Ideal," NYT, "White House lays out nine-week timeline to win approval for Trump’s ballroom," Washington Post), counter to the historic preservation legal process.  To facilitate this he fired all the members of the oversight body that reviews federal projects in the city ("White House fires entire commission that reviews designs for federal buildings," NPR).
• It gets worse, he has plans for the West Wing too ("Ballroom architect reveals Trump is plotting to destroy West Wing," Daily Beast)
• He wants to build an Arc de Triomphe/Triumphal Arch in Washington, "in honor of the 250th Anniversary of the United States" ("Trump says building DC triumphal arch is domestic policy chief’s ‘primary thing’," Guardian, "Trump says construction of the ‘Triumphal Arch’ to begin in ‘2 months’," Politico)

President Donald Trump addresses a dinner for donors who have contributed to build the new ballroom at the White House, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, in Washington. | John McDonnell/AP Photo

• Renaming the Institute of Peace ("US Institute of Peace renamed after Trump," BBC) and the Kennedy Center ("All the Kennedy Center cancellations since Trump’s name was added," Post).

Photo: Nathan Howard, Reuters.

• He's put his face on banners affixed to federal buildings ("Massive banners with Trump’s face are adorning some federal buildings in DC. Democrats are crying foul," CNN), changed the dates of free access to National Parks to include his birthday, and put his mug on the National Parks annual pass ("National Park Service will void passes with stickers over Trump's face," NPR).

Massive banners with Trump’s face are adorning some federal buildings in DC. 

Democrats are crying foul.  CNN photo.

• Last year, he had a war parade for himself ("3 takeaways from the military parade and No Kings protests on Trump's birthday," NPR) and he keeps whining that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize--although maybe that's not a cultural issue.

Armored vehicles drive during the Army's 250th anniversary parade in Washington, D.C. 

Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images

• And he wants his face on coins even though the law says living people can't be so honored.

The U.S. Mint released three prototype designs for a $1 coin featuring President Donald Trump 

to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary this year. 

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In DC, he also wants to take over the public golf courses ("Trump’s self-serving takeover of D.C. public golf is bad news for all," The Athletic/NYT).