How Trump Is Remaking Culture To Fit His Worldview
The NPR Politics Podcast
NPR
4.5 • 24.9K Ratings
🗓️ 29 August 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode: White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram, critic-at-large Eric Deggans, and senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro.
This podcast was produced by Casey Morell & Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye.
Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. |
| 0:05.4 | RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right. |
| 0:12.1 | Learn more at RWJF.org. |
| 0:16.3 | This is Christy from Trophy Club, Texas. |
| 0:19.0 | I'm currently on my first trip to Alaska, |
| 0:21.5 | enjoying the soothing sounds of cold water rushing by me |
| 0:24.3 | at the base of a waterfall near Valdez. |
| 0:27.4 | This podcast was recorded at 1.12 p.m. on Friday, August 29th, 2020. |
| 0:33.7 | Things may have changed by the time you hear this, |
| 0:35.9 | but I will be missing this weather when I return to the Texas heat. Enjoy the show. Ooh, so many travel intros lately. End of summer. It's so relaxing. I love that sound. I'm going to need that for my white noisemaker. Ooh, I like that idea. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Deepa Shiverom. I cover the White House. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent. And we also have NPR Critic at Large. Eric Deggans here. Welcome back to the podcast, Eric. Hey, great to be here. Although I'm feeling a little sleepy after hearing all that white noise. |
| 1:13.1 | We're going to pick up the pace. Don't worry. |
| 1:17.9 | So today on the show, we're looking at how President Trump has put his mark on culture, |
| 1:24.5 | from taking over major cultural institutions to his near daily presence on television and social media. |
| 1:26.8 | So, Eric, let's back up here for a moment. |
| 1:29.0 | Remind us about some of the ways Trump has basically taken over cultural institutions. Sure. So at cultural institutions where the federal |
| 1:35.7 | government has a lot of power, he's acted very aggressively. He's notified the Smithsonian that there's |
| 1:42.8 | going to be a review of their exhibits and take a hard look |
| 1:47.2 | at what the exhibits they're presenting and make sure that they more conform to, you know, |
| 1:51.8 | his vision of what they should be saying about America. He's also taking control of the Kennedy |
| 1:57.5 | Center, replaced people on the board, and gotten very aggressively involved with |
| 2:03.9 | who they picked for the Kennedy Center honors this time around, and even talked a little bit |
| 2:09.2 | during a press conference about how he should get one. And there's a lot of aggressive action there |
... |
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