Washington (AP)-a Tuxedo-supporter President Donald Trump was booed and cheered on when he was based on the opening night of “Les Misérables” in the Kennedy Center and brought his own dose of political drama into theater production.
It was his first time that he took part in a show since he became president and reflected on the up-to-date formation of the institution in his image and at the same time claimed more control over the country’s cultural landscape.
“We want to bring it back and want to bring it back better than ever,” said Trump, while we went down the red carpet with First Lady Melania Trump. The Republican President has a special affection for “Les Misérables”, the extensive musical that plays in France from the 19th century, and occasionally played his songs at his events.
The opening night had a Maga des Broadway feeling. Ric Grenell, the preliminary chairman of the Kennedy Center appointed with Trump, was nearby when the president spoke to reporters. Attorney General Pam Bondi talked to other guests. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary for health and human services, recorded selfies with the participants. Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha were also there.
In view of the guest list, there were more precautions than usual, and the ticket etholders had their bags searched through magnetometers after walking. Soda in doses was available for 8 US dollars, while a glass of wine cost 19 US dollars.
Terry Gee, a bartender, bought his ticket for the show in November and had nothing to do that Trump’s presence. It is his sixth time to see “Les Misérables”, and he said: “I will still enjoy the show.”
Hannah Watkins, a nurse, only learned that Trump would be there when the Kennedy Center distributed information about additional security and searched for her to see what happened.
“So far I have seen a lot of famous people what is exciting,” said Watkins, who had claimed a place near the VIP entrance with her mother. “To be honest, we only like” Les Mis “and are happy to be here.”
Before Trump, the President’s participation in the affairs of the Kennedy Center was confined to naming the members of the board of trustees and participating in the admission of his annual fee program in autumn.
After Trump returned to office in January, he fascinated the art world by releasing the long -time director and board member of the Kennedy Center and replacing them by loyalists, who then appointed him as chairman. Trump promised to revise his programming, his management and even the appearance as part of the efforts to put his stamp in the national art scene.
His latest steps have annoyed some of the patients and actors of the center.
In March the audience bored the vances after they slipped into the seats of the upper level to hear the National Symphony Orchestra. Trump appointed Usha Vance together with Bondi, the chief of staff of the White House, Susie Wiles and Fox News Channel, among others with Bondi, the chief of staff of the White House, Susie Wiles, and Fox News Channel.
The sale of subscription packages is said to have decreased since Trump’s takeover, and several tour productions, including “Hamilton”, have canceled planned runs in the center. The actor Issa Rae and the musician Rhiannon Giddens have resigned planned appearances and the consultants of the Kennedy Center like musicians Ben Folds and singer Renée Fleming.
Second studies occurred in some roles on Wednesday evening due to Boykotten through “Les Misérables” casting members, but Trump said that he was not disturbed by anyone who skipped the performance.
“I couldn’t interest me less,” he said.
Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has accepted a more aggressive attitude towards the arts. The White House has taken steps to cancel millions of dollars of previously awarded federal spirit science on art and cultural groups, and Trump’s budget blueprint proposed to eliminate the national equipment for the arts and the national equipment for the humanities.
Trump also attacked the Smithsonian Museums by signing the instructions for managers to restrict their financing and released the director of the National Portrait Gallery.
Trump described previous programs in the Kennedy Center as “out of control of political propaganda” and said that it contained “some very inappropriate shows”, including a “Marxist anti-policy performance” and “lesbian-just lesben-shakespeare”.
The Kennedy Center, which is supported by government funds and private donations in 1971 and decades, has been seen as an apolitical celebration of the arts for decades.
It was first designed at the end of the 1950s during the administration of Republican President Dwight Eisenhower, who supported a draft law of the democratically guided congress, which demanded for a national cultural center. In the early 1960s, the democratic President John F. Kennedy started an initiative for donation campaigns, and his successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, signed a draft law from 1964 in 1964, which renamed John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the performing arts. Kennedy had been murdered the previous year.
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Mark Kennedy in New York and Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.
