Of note at the beginning of this article, this is not about politics. Not at least having an opinion on President Donald Trump or any of his non-music-related ideas. That said, Trump did recently make a decision that affected one musician in particular, and that was Ben Folds.
Folds was an artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra, see. The NSO's principal performing venue is the Kennedy Center. We can assume Folds did not vote for Trump as the president recently made the decision to take over the Kennedy Center because he found too many of the concerts there against his liking.
On Wednesday, the Kennedy Center board voted to instill Trump as its chair. Now, one might safely assume the President of the United States of America has better things to do than oversee the Kennedy Center, but that does not appear to be the case. Government is becoming more involved in many facets of life which is ironic since the political right usually likes less hands-on government.
In theory.
Donald Trump's decision to be chair at the Kennedy Center has ramifications for Ben Folds
Folds decided to step down as an advisor after Trump became chair.
Trump said last week on his social media platform, "At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN."
If one did not know that the Kennedy Center, named after Democratic president John F. Kennedy, was government-funded, well...now one does. The sad part is the arts and music should ideally be indifferent to government interference. A right-wing musician like Ted Nugent has as much right to spew his political views as left-wing leaning John Mellencamp does.
That has always been the beauty of music and art. One gets to make their own decisions about what they do (mostly; record companies get involved as well) because of what their soul is telling them to do. We have the freedom currently to voice those views, thankfully, in the United States.
The worst part about Trump's decision on the Kennedy Center is that it will no doubt have an effect on how it operates. That means less artistic freedom, and that is a scary thing. The same would be said if a former president, such as Joe Biden, were to take over being chair of the Kennedy Center. Presidents should have more important things to do, right? However, what is more important than art?
Ben Folds also has a right to make his decision to step away from the Kennedy Center based on recent events. If any musical artist decides to pass on playing at the Center after what has happened with Trump then that would be their right as well. One might guess that those kinds of musicians might not get an invite to perform, however.