After several World Pride performances were canceled at the Kennedy Center, Great American Songbook Foundation’s founder, Michael Feinstein, wrote an essay titled “Fear of Queer?” criticizing Trump’s attack on the arts. “Recently, I was invited to conduct the National Symphony Orchestra, perform and speak at a program entitled ‘A Peacock Among Pigeons: Celebrating 50 Years of Pride’ at The Kennedy Center, which celebrated the rainbow of influences upon art, music and our entire culture. This program was abruptly and unceremoniously canceled,” he explained on May 10. “These recent Kennedy Center losses may well be defined in the years ahead, as the 21st century government-sanctioned censorship and silencing of creativity, regardless of value, based strictly on sexual orientation.”
In the same essay, he also criticized Trump’s defunding of other arts and culture institutions like NPR and PBS. He continued, “The Kennedy Center crisis removes the light and plunges our country into despair. Indeed, the latest attempts to strip PBS and NPR of critical funds, highlight the fact that any government-supported access to the arts is no longer safe since the current administration has banned, cancelled or forbidden, in an effort to erase any concert or programs at the Kennedy Center, that in any way allows art to acknowledge of existence of homosexuality (and these ‘cancellations’ do not acknowledge the disturbing, racist, misogynistic and other bigoted forms of censorship, which I find equally distressing, infuriating and indeed, despicable).”
A few weeks after taking office, Trump announced a takeover of the Kennedy Center in February 2025. He made himself chairman and replaced several board members with people from his team. Soon after, several performances were either canceled by the administration, like the “A Peacock Among Pigeons” and the touring children’s musical Finn. Others bowed out voluntarily, like Issa Rae’s performance, Fellow Travelers, and Hamilton.