Ben Folds has slammed what he describes as Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center “propaganda”.
The musician and former artistic advisor described the institution’s working environment as “toxic” in a fiery testimony at a congressional hearing in Washington on Tuesday.
Folds, 59, explained he had quit his role within the Center, a performing-arts hub in Washington, DC, after determining it was impossible to protect artists from political “retribution”.
“With the new partisan toxic environment under the current administration, I could not trust that artists I booked at the Kennedy Center would be safe from retribution if they said or sung something that might displease the president or his political lackeys who now controlled the Center,” the Ben Folds Five frontman stated.
“I could not perform my job or the mission I was brought on to do, and for this reason, with great sadness, I had no choice but to resign.”
Folds explained he was prompted to resign after Trump, 80, handpicked a governing board for the Center and declared he would rename it in his own honour.
“I think most of us understand that when you politicise art, you get propaganda,” the indie-pop singer and songwriter said.
He added he struggled to understand the reasoning behind subsequent appointments to the Center’s leadership roles.
“You have to marvel at anyone who would believe they could run the business of the Kennedy Center with no prior arts administration experience at all,” Folds said.
Convened by Democrat politicians and titled “Monumental Waste: How Donald Trump Is Spending Millions Destroying American Landmarks,” the forum also discussed the US President’s renovation of the White House and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
