Peter Gelb is warning that the arts are under threat from the rise of authoritarian regimes.

In an interview with Backstage Classical, the Metropolitan Opera General Manager told Axel Brüggemann that President Donald Trump’s administration has impacted the arts and the Met’s audiences.

Gelb stated that the new policies that have been implemented by the administration have seen a decline in tourism, and “according to him, 17 percent fewer tourists came to New York after Trump took office. The number of Canadian visitors even fell by 75 percent. This also negatively impacted the revenue of the Metropolitan Opera, which depended on international visitors for 20 percent before the pandemic.”

Gelb noted that while federal funding was cut, it had “no noticeable impact” as The Met received less than one percent of its budget from this means. But he did warn that cuts to smaller organizations “could be devastating.”

The General Manager also noted that the financial instability around the world could affect philanthropy. He said, “People who are wealthy, even if they are very philanthropic, become more anxious about giving away money. They like to give away money when it is at the highest value. They don’t like to give it away when their own personal wealth is diminished.”

Gelb also spoke of artistic freedom and noted that the Kennedy Center was under the financial control of the government, which is why Trump was able to take over the center. He also noted that Europe is under the same risk. As a result, he said, he “believed in artistic freedom” now more than ever with the rise of autocratic governments and said that being intimidated by autocratic governments is not a “recipe for success”