Last February, when Donald Trump appointed himself chairman of Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and ousted its board, the world was aghast but also a bit amused. It was a vanity thing, most people thought; after all, the leader of the world’s most powerful country would have no time to spend on an arts centre. Things turned out differently, and now artists are leaving the Trump Kennedy Center in droves. Other regimes that have tried to impress their signature on the arts have had similar experiences.

On 12 February 2025, Donald Trump posted this message on Truth Social, his social-media platform: ‘President Donald J. Trump was just unanimously elected Chairman of the Board of the prestigious Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. The president [of the center] stated: “It is a Great Honor to be Chairman of The Kennedy Center, especially with this amazing Board of Trustees. We will make The Kennedy Center a very special and exciting place!”’ The ‘amazing Board’ to which he referred was a board on which Democrats had been replaced by people from Trump’s orbit, including family members of current administration officials. Virtually at the same time, Trump appointed Richard Grenell, a long-time aide who had no experience working in the arts, but had wanted a senior role in the administration, as the Kennedy Center’s interim president. A consolation prize, people said.

These were unorthodox measures, to be sure, but, in the industry, people assumed that the Kennedy Center would continue operating pretty much as before, perhaps with a few more shows of the kind Trump likes. (He’s not known as an arts patron, but had said he wanted more family-friendly fare.)

A few months into the experiment, it had become clear where the Kennedy Center was headed. Long-time staff members had been fired and replaced by those hand-picked by Grenell. That was his prerogative, but, like him, the new joiners had no experience in the arts and assumed that an arts institution could be run like a business, the New York Times reported. Then there was the arts complex’s new profile as a politically infused undertaking. Together, these developments prompted artists to cancel performances and patrons to stop buying tickets.

Then, in December, the Kennedy Center’s board voted to change its name to Trump Kennedy Center. Additional golden letters were swiftly added at the front of the imposing building. More artists cancelled performances. Then, the Washington National Opera (WNO) announced that it was moving out. There is no other opera house in Washington, but so determined was the WNO that it left anyway. It will now perform at the nearby George Washington University. More artist cancellations followed, including by the venerated Martha Graham Dance Company.

The Washington area’s premier arts institution is now on its way to becoming an institution without the arts – or, rather, without arts of the kind that would be the envy of the world. That would be extremely regrettable, because the Kennedy Center’s great contribution was precisely to bring world-class arts to a city that was, before its arrival, home to immense power, but with embarrassingly poor cultural offerings.

Over the generations, regimes in different times and places have tried to stamp their signature on the arts. In totalitarian countries like Stalin’s Soviet Union, composers knew what they could and could not compose. In the Third Reich, the Nazis tried to organise, and rule, the arts under a government umbrella in the Reichskulturkammer. In Venezuela, the Chavista government under Hugo Chavez and then Nicolás Maduro heavily supported the country’s phenomenally successful El Sistema youth orchestra system, with the understanding that those involved in it would not criticise the regime. You can add your favourite examples to the list.

Yet every regime, whatever its colour, that has tried to rein in or dictate the arts has discovered that it’s not possible. Artists often take their artistry elsewhere, while those that remain may well be of the second, or even third rank. That is why so few try, because many leaders who might have aspired to interfere with the arts realise that the politicised end products of such meddling may ultimately make the entire undertaking look ridiculous.

The Kennedy Center could descend into insignificance; or there may turn out to be enough first-rate artists still willing to perform there under the current leadership. However, the current calendar of events suggests this may prove a challenge.