How Will President Trump’s New Term & Potential Ambassador for Music & Culture Affect Arts Organizations?
By Francisco SalazarAs he did back in 2016, convicted felon and President Donald Trump has promised to “Make America Great Again…” (Again?)
But on inauguration day, he seemed to get on the wrong foot, at least on the musical side of things. A technical malfunction caused Carrie Underwood to perform a capalla, while “operatic tenor” Christopher Macchio seemed to be pushing his voice beyond the limits of his abilities.
You can check out the performance here:
But that doesn’t seem to be stopping the new president from making decisions that could have an impact on the arts. First, he decided to name Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone, and Jon Voight Ambassadors to Hollywood in order to “to put it back on track” and “Make Hollywood Great Again.”
Now it seems that he will be naming Macchio to some position that could be ambassador for American Music and Culture. According to CBS Morning, the tenor is expected to be named into the position at some point in the coming days, meaning he will be traveling throughout the country and world.
Macchio has become a favorite of Trump’s, performing at 47’s rallies and even being nicknamed “America’s tenor.” The tenor studied at Manhattan School of Music and is a student of Emilio Pons, who boasted about it on social media stating, “I am, undisputedly, the ONLY voice teacher in the United States of America with a studio roster that includes a singer performing at the historical inauguration of President Trump. My friend and student Christopher Macchio will be performing in front of hundreds of thousands live in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025, and in front of millions of people across the world.”
So what can people expect from an ambassador for Music and Culture? It seems the President is ready to make big changes everywhere and one of the many things he will do is get rid of, through Executive Order, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs. He said, “We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based.” And while it will only affect Federal agencies first, the president does not intend on stopping there. An official said, “Private business should wait and see. We have more actions on DEI very soon.”
This means that there would be funding cuts for so-called DEI initiatives across all government agencies in order to “end DEI inside the federal government.” Following the Black Lives Matter protests, many opera companies and arts institutions created programs to create more equity within the arts and give a boost to more diverse casting and employment. Many of the country’s arts organizations have obtained funding from the National Council on the Arts to mount productions and programs.
When Trump took office in 2016, he attempted to defund numerous agencies and projects including the National Endowment for the Arts. With Trump’s new executive order, opera companies may be pressured to get rid of certain programs to obtain funding from the government and perhaps, this could spell the end of new contemporary cutting-edge works being produced.
Meanwhile, under the recent administration, the U.S. Senate passed a historic $1.5 billion plan for the American Federation of Musicians Union, restoring pensions to nearly 50,000 members. And AGMA endorsed Kamala Harris for President during her campaign, only the second time the noted union supported a presidential campaign (the union also support Joe Biden in 2020), noting that “Together, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are THE choice for people who treasure the Arts and artists and believe in workers’ rights and the value of unions to society.”
But Trump is now President and it’s possible that, as Macchio said in an interview with the Associated Press, he will simply focus on advocating for classical music education.
Time will tell how the arts, which are going through a difficult moment, could be affected in the coming months.
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