For 13 months, President Trump has been the chairman, muse, occasional programmer, and featured artist at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. His centrality'perhaps even more than his name on the building'helps explain why so many acts have abandoned the Washington, D.C., arts complex. (The most recent, the New York City Ballet, didn't need to explain itself when it dropped a six-show run this week.) Trump is undoubtedly on his way to remaking the Kennedy Center in his image. But his stewardship also imposes constraints on him, as became clear during the recent back-and-forth between the White House and the comedian Bill Maher, who the center said will receive this year's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Occasionally, someone else gets to be the main character'in this case, a person from that prickliest of artistic mediums, comedy. My colleague Ashley Parker and I reported last week that Maher was the choice for this year's prize, one of comedy's highest honors,...
learn more
