{"id":14201,"date":"2026-07-23T03:38:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T22:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=14201"},"modified":"2026-07-23T03:38:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T22:38:17","slug":"ben-folds-testifies-before-congress-about-trumps-kennedy-center-overhaul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=14201","title":{"rendered":"Ben Folds Testifies Before Congress About Trump&#8217;s Kennedy Center Overhaul"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ben-folds-congress.jpg?quality=80\" \/><\/p>\n<div data-id=\"1613275\" data-title=\"Ben Folds to Congress on Trump\u2019s Kennedy Center Takeover: \u201cWhen You Politicize Art, You\u2019ve Got Propaganda\u201d\" data-url=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2026\/07\/ben-folds-testifies-congress-trump-kennedy-center-takeover\/\" data-page=\"1\" data-pages=\"1\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/artist\/ben-folds\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ben Folds<\/a> testified before a bicameral congressional forum on Tuesday, July 21st, arguing that <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/live-coverage\/kennedy-center-takeover\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">President Donald Trump\u2019s takeover<\/a> of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. undermined the federal arts institution and turned it into a \u201chyper-politicized environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Folds was appointed in 2017 as the first artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, a role he <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2025\/02\/ben-folds-resigns-from-advisory-position-at-kennedy-center\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">stepped down from in February 2025<\/a>. In his speech before Congress, Folds spoke for five-and-a-half minutes, describing how the nonprofit had long been a neutral organization before Trump removed board members, became chairman, and appointed supporters who overhauled the venue\u2019s programming.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vivid-seats.pxf.io\/c\/1882189\/952533\/12730?subId1=ben-folds%2Acongress-trump-kennedy-center-takeover-button&amp;subId2=&amp;subId3=&amp;sharedid=&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vividseats.com%2Fben-folds-tickets%2Fperformer%2F73\" class=\"button button-ticket\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Shop Ben Folds Tickets<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust as our efforts were beginning to make a difference across the country, in February 2025, the Trump administration staged a brutal board takeover,\u201d Folds said. \u201cFor the first time in history, a president took control of the Kennedy Center\u2019s programming and messaging. The firewall between politics and the Center\u2019s nonprofit mission was eliminated. The result was a hyper-politicized environment. Gone was the apolitical sanctuary the Kennedy Center always provided.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Related Video<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Folds asserted, the new era of leadership has thrown the Center into chaos. \u201cI think most of us understand that when you politicize art, you\u2019ve got propaganda,\u201d Folds said.<\/p>\n<p>Folds went on to explain the difficulties artists face, whether they go through with performing at the Center or not. He gave an example of an incident that occurred last September, when fingerstyle guitarist <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2025\/09\/yasmin-williams-kennedy-center-president-log-cabin-republicans\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Yasmin Williams was heckled<\/a> by an organized group of conservatives after questioning changes at the Center.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYasmin had to endure heckling from extremists on the right while also getting grief from the left for even showing up to perform, treated [as] if she was a scab crossing a picket line,\u201d Folds stated.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, Folds said, \u201cThe takeover hobbled the Kennedy Center, broke its once proven successful business model, and disrespected its original core mission.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Led by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tuesday\u2019s hearing was titled \u201cMonumental Waste: How Donald Trump Is Spending Millions Destroying American Landmarks.\u201d You can watch Ben Folds\u2019 remarks at around the 25-minute mark in the video below.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Monumental Waste - How Donald Trump Is Spending Millions Destroying American Landmarks\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/M-XfWZkT3_Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n\t\t!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n\t\tn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n\t\tn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=1;\n\t\tt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n\t\tdocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n\t\tfbq('init', '1753966171496536');\n\t\tfbq('set','agent','tmgoogletagmanager', '1753966171496536');\n\t\tfbq('track', \"PageView\");\n\t<\/script><script defer crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&#038;version=v7.0&#038;appId=434175690014\" nonce=\"6gwmbCtM\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ben Folds testified before a bicameral congressional forum on Tuesday, July 21st, arguing that President Donald Trump\u2019s takeover of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. undermined the federal arts institution and turned it into a \u201chyper-politicized environment.\u201d Folds was appointed in 2017 as the first artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/consequence.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ben-folds-congress.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}