ここを仕切るのは私…トランプ氏、理事長に就任の文化施設を視察

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】ドナルド・トランプ米大統領は１７日、首都ワシントンにある文化施設ジョン・Ｆ・ケネディ・センターを視察した。トランプ氏はこの日、大統領専用の特等席から記者団に語り掛け、ステージ上で理事会の会合を主宰しながら、同施設で上演されてきた大ヒットミュージカル「ハミルトン」を一度も好きだと思ったことがないと言い放った。終始打ち出していたメッセージは「今、この施設を取り仕切っているのは私だ」というものであった。（写真は米首都ワシントンのジョン・Ｆ・ケネディ・センターを訪れたドナルド・トランプ大統領）
　トランプ氏がケネディ・センターを訪れたのは、前任者を解任し、自身が同施設の理事長に就任して以来初めて。解任については、「ウォーク（目覚めている、の意。社会問題や人種差別、性差別などへの意識が高いことを示す）」への全国的な闘いの一環だと説明した。
　また専用の特等席から記者団に語り掛け、「ここを再び偉大にする」とし、ケネディ・センターでは資金が浪費され「荒れ放題になっている」と主張した。
　最初に訪れたのは地下のアート部門だった。ここでは、前任者たちが「誰も使わない」高価な部屋をいくつも設けたことを非難した。その後、ドラマチックな照明が当てられたステージ上の巨大なテーブルで理事会の会合を行った。
　理事会にはかつて首都ワシントンを代表する文化人が集まっていたが、現在はスージー・ワイルズ大統領首席補佐官や副大統領夫人のウシャ・バンス氏ら、忠実なトランプ支持者が顔をそろえている。
　ケネディ・センターの急激な方針転換は反発を招いている。先週は観客がＪ・Ｄ・バンス副大統領にブーイングを浴びせる一幕もあり、予定されていた「ハミルトン」の上演も中止になった。
　同作のプロデューサーは今月、トランプ氏が同施設の「中立性」を「破壊」したことに抗議し、直近の上演中止を発表した。
　一方、トランプ氏はこうした反発や懸念を一蹴。
　「『ハミルトン』はあまり好きではなかった。一度も好きになったことがない。代わりにここで素晴らしいショーをいくつも開催するつもりだ」と述べた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2025/03/18-20:03）

He addressed the masses, or at least the media, from the presidential opera box. He led a board meeting. He said he never really liked the smash hit musical Hamilton.
But Donald Trump's message stayed the same throughout a triumphalist visit to the Kennedy Center in Washington: I'm in charge now.
The US president was making his first visit to the famed arts venue since installing himself as chairman and ousting its leadership in part of what he has called a nationwide war on woke.
We'll make it great again, Trump told reporters, saying the center was wasting money and in tremendous disrepair.
But it is so much like what I'm witnessing in other places -- we have open borders, we have men playing in women's sports. It's all the same thing.
With that, the 78-year-old Republican then explicitly linked his takeover of the center to his wider blitz on liberals and his opponents in almost every area of American life.
- Loyalists -
His sudden changes at the Kennedy Center have faced opposition, with concertgoers booing Vice President JD Vance last week and Hamilton canceling a planned run there.
The producer of the rap musical, which is about the birth of the United States and its first treasury secretary, said earlier this month that he was canceling its latest run in protest after Trump destroyed the venue's neutrality.
But former reality TV star Trump waved away the concerns.
I never liked Hamilton very much. I never liked it, but we are going to have some really good shows, he said.
Trump's show of power was the latest in the space of a few days to one of the institutions that he has upended since starting his second term, following a similar trip to the Department of Justice on Friday.
He took a lengthy tour of the Kennedy Center, first visiting a basement arts area where he lamented that its previous bosses had built expensive rooms nobody's going to use.
The president then held a board meeting at the venue's opera house at a huge, dramatically lit table placed on the stage.
The board, which once held a cross-section of Washington cultural figures, is now stuffed with loyalists including Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles and Second Lady Usha Vance.
- 'Not going to be woke' -
Then Trump ascended to the presidential box, draped in red velvet with a huge presidential seal, and answered a few questions from on high from the assembled media gathered below.
The symbolism of Trump's newly exerted control could not have been clearer.
The Kennedy Center, a white marble edifice on the banks of the Potomac River, is home to the National Symphony Orchestra and also offers theater, opera, comedy and other productions.
Trump, however, has vowed that it's not going to be woke anymore and has railed at the fact that it used to host drag shows.
Ever the showman, Trump's own performance at the Kennedy Center came with a surprise finale.
As he left through the grand foyer, he said that on Tuesday his administration would release remaining files on the 1963 assassination of president John F. Kennedy -- the man after whom the center is named.
That's a big announcement, Trump said next to a bust of his Democratic predecessor. People have been waiting for decades for that.