Donald Trump’s War on Culture Is Not a Sideshow

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

Politics, Obama, News, Wnyc, Washington, Barack, President, Lizza, Wickenden

4.2 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 1 September 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

The term “culture wars” is most often associated with issues of sexuality, race, religion, and gender. But, as recent months have made plain, when Donald Trump refers to the culture wars, he also means the arts. He fired the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which Republicans want to rename for him. His Administration fired the national archivist and the Librarian of Congress, and pressured the director of the National Portrait Gallery to resign; it is reviewing the entire Smithsonian Institution, looking for what the President calls “improper ideology.” Some view these moves as low-hanging fruit for Trump, and a distraction from bad press about Jeffrey Epstein, the Putin meeting, and tariffs. But Adam Gopnik believes that interpretation is a misreading. The loyalty purge at institutions such as the National Portrait Gallery is a key part of his agenda. “Pluralism is the key principle of a democratic culture,” Gopnik tells David Remnick. Could we be following the path of Stalinist Russia, where a head of state dictated reviews of concerts, Remnick asks? “I pray and believe that we are not. But that is certainly the direction in which one inevitably heads when the political boss takes over key cultural institutions, and dictates who’s acceptable and who is not.” Gopnik recalls saying after the election that “Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert would be next.” “You would see them disappear,” he added. “Each time, we find a rationale for it or a rationale is offered. And it’s much easier for us to swallow the rationale than to face the reality.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the political scene, and I'm David Remnick.
0:11.8	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:19.7	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
0:23.3	Usually when we talk about the culture wars, we mean issues of sexuality, race, religion,
0:28.9	and gender. But as recent months have made plain, when Donald Trump thinks about the
0:33.9	culture wars, he also very distinctly means the arts. Trump has very definite
0:39.9	taste in what he likes to see and what repels him, too. At the start of his second presidency,
0:46.0	Trump fired the board of the Kennedy Center, and now the Republicans would like to rename
0:50.3	the building for him. His administration pressured the director of the National Portrait Gallery
0:55.7	to resign, and they fired the National Archivist and the Librarian of Congress. His attorneys are
1:02.6	reviewing the entire Smithsonian Institution, looking for what the president calls improper ideology.
1:10.8	Now, one reading of all this is that culture makes an easy
1:14.0	target. It seems elite, and that all this is a deflection from the Epstein noise and the Ukraine
1:21.2	war and the tariffs and so much else. But my colleague, Adam Gopnik, believes this is a serious
1:27.4	misreading.
1:28.9	Adam writes widely for the New Yorker about culture and history and much else, and we spoke last week.
1:37.6	What is the nature of this culture war in the second presidency?
1:43.5	Not just the details, but what is it aimed at doing? What is it,
1:47.6	what is it not? You know, I can't speak for Trump's intentions, and often I think we make a mistake
1:53.5	in overreading his intentionality and imagining that there's a scheme when there's simply a set of
2:00.3	stimulus and responses that go on.
2:04.6	I think that there's this enormous sense, certainly around the people who he surrounds myself with,
	...

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