WASHINGTON — The White House announced early Saturday that President Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, would not participate in this year’s Kennedy Center Honors, “to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction.”
The
decision was another episode in an already fraught week for the White
House. Mr. Trump has become increasingly isolated after a series of
comments about the white supremacist marches in Charlottesville, Va.
Concerned about being aligned with Mr. Trump, business leaders on the
Strategic and Policy Forum agreed to disband
earlier this week. And on Friday, all 16 members of the President’s
Committee on the Arts and the Humanities resigned in protest of Mr.
Trump’s comments.
Also on Friday, the president’s chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, left the White House: the latest in a string of firings and departures that have left the White House in a regenerative phase.
Mr.
and Mrs. Trump’s decision not to attend the Kennedy Center celebration
means that it will be just the fourth time in the program’s 40-year
history that a president will not be in attendance.
In 1994, President
Bill Clinton skipped the event while on his way to Budapest for a conference. In 1989, President George H.W. Bush was preoccupied with a summit in Malta with Mikhail S. Gorbachev. In 1979, Jimmy Carter did not attend because of the Iran hostage crisis.
“The
president and first lady have decided not to participate in this year’s
activities to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political
distraction,” the White House statement said. “First lady Melania Trump,
along with her husband President Donald J. Trump, extend their sincerest congratulations and well wishes to all of this year’s award recipients for their many accomplishments.”
A
spokeswoman for the Kennedy Center, Michelle Pendoley, said that the
Washington arts institution had been in “close contact” with the White
House ahead of the decision and that she was alerted before the White
House made its announcement.
Another
spokeswoman, Eileen Andrews, said the Kennedy Center was “proactive in
ongoing conversations” with the White House as recently as Friday.
Some
recipients of the award, which honors lifetime careers in art, music,
dance, film, television and culture, had already said they would not
attend a gala event at the White House held in conjunction with the
presentation. The Kennedy Center said that the gala had been canceled.
The
dancer and choreographer Carmen de Lavallade, who is among those to be
honored by the Kennedy Center in December, announced on Thursday that
she would have forgone the related reception anyway.
“In
light of the socially divisive and morally caustic narrative that our
current leadership is choosing to engage in, and in keeping with the
principles that I and so many others have fought for, I will be
declining the invitation to attend the reception at the White House,”
Ms. de Lavallade, 86, said in a statement.
Another
honoree, Norman Lear, a television producer known for progressive
political activism, had said he would not attend the reception before
the ceremony where he is to receive an award for lifelong artistic
achievement.
In
its statement Saturday, the Kennedy Center appeared grateful that Mr.
and Mrs. Trump settled on skipping the ceremony. The center said that it
expected all the honorees to attend the weekend’s events.
“In
choosing not to participate in this year’s Honors activities,” the
Kennedy Center leadership, David M. Rubenstein and Deborah F. Rutter,
wrote, “the administration has graciously signaled its respect for the
Kennedy Center and ensures the Honors gala remains a deservingly special
moment for the honorees.”
There
was, at one point, an event at the Kennedy Center that Mr. Trump was
eager to attend. He spoke to an adoring crowd of evangelical Christians
there in July, at a concert honoring veterans. An orchestra and choir
from Texas welcomed the president to the stage with a song
called “Make America Great Again,” a play on the president’s campaign
slogan. The event soon took on the appearance of a campaign rally, with
attendees wearing “Make America Great Again” hats and waving American
flags.
“The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House,” Mr. Trump said that day. “But I’m president and they’re not.”
Culled Via NYTimes
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