President Donal Trump has made cultural fight, especially against the policy of diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), a strong axis of his policy. He published as soon as he arrived and shortly after, several Executive Orders (presidential decrees) restoring decrees of his first mandate or canceling Joe Biden decrees in the cultural field.
In theory, presidential decrees do not require the approval of the congress, but many of those who have been taken in the cultural field partially fall under the legislative field and are likely to be invalidated.
In some cases, he hopes to get around the congress based on the Doge, the Department of Government Efficiency (Ministry of Government Effectiveness), led by Elon Musk, and created by a Executive order From January 2025 to restructure federal agencies, which includes the possibility of dismissing employees for budgetary reasons, programs deemed ineffective or redundant, or devoted to Dei initiatives.
January 20, 2025
Donald Trump publishes a decree ending the policy of diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI)
Read the White House press release
The DEI program results from a progressive evolution of policies on civil rights, equal opportunities and social responsibilities of companies since the 1960s. In the 2010s, the acronym ofi spread after the movements Black Lives Matter And Metoo. In 2011, Barack Obama signed theExecutive OrdeR 13583 reinforcing inclusion and diversity in the public service (repealed under Trump’s first mandate).
Under the Biden Administration, a decree of 2021 (1398 obliges federal agencies to integrate equity criteria into their internal management and their programs. The 14035 decree requires that agencies take concrete measures to promote the DEI program by improving recruitment, and the promotion of employees from minorities. Following these executive orders, the federal museums have created departments Dedicated to diversity, inclusion and accessibility, implementing initiatives such as the promotion of under-represented artists and inclusive educational programs.
Since the signing of the Trump decree, the dei offices of the Smithsonian Institution and the National Gallery of Art have been deleted, and exhibitions have been canceled as that on black artists and LGBTQ+ at the Museum of Arts in Washington.
January 20, 2025
Donald Trump publishes a decree aimed at promoting neo-classical architecture
Read the White House press release
In this decree, Donald Trump orders the federal general services of him “Submit within 60 days of recommendations aimed at promoting the policy that federal public buildings should be visually identifiable as civic buildings and respect the regional, traditional and classic architectural heritage”.
Trump had already published a similar decree in 2020, which had led to the creation of a presidential council responsible for supervising the decisions relating to federal architecture and for rejecting all modernist construction projects, in particular those associated with brutalist or deconstructivist currents. The decree was then revoked in 2021 by the Biden administration.
This decree will have an impact on a very small number of buildings, because it only concerns the new federal buildings of more than 50 million euros.
January 20, 2025
Donald Trump removes the presidential committee of arts and letters
Read the White House press release
The presidential committee of arts and letters (PCAH), created in 1982 by presidential decree, advises the president on cultural policy, in collaboration with American cultural agencies. After a 5 -year break (he had been removed during Trump’s first term), he was restored in 2022 by Joe Biden who created a presidential committee of arts and letters composed in 2023 of 24 personalities including the pop star Lady Gaga. This group made up of artists, researchers, museum practitioners and philanthropists makes recommendations to the president and to the managers of federal cultural agencies, to promote initiatives in the arts and the human sciences.
January 29, 2025
The White House restores three executive orders for the creation of a national garden of American heroes
Read the White House press release
President Donald Trump restores three previous decrees of his first mandate (repealed by Biden in 2021), one of which was aimed at creating a “National garden of American heroes” Or a sculpture park comprising 250 statues paying tribute to key characters in the history of the United States. The project, proposed for the first time in 2020, should be part of the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations in 2026.
The first executive order (13933) aims to protect monuments, memorial sites and statues of the country disputed since the movement Black Lives Matter Against racial injustice and police brutality. The second executive order (13934) aims to create a place of memory to honor and celebrate American heroes through statues. The third executive order (13978) aims to build this national garden of American heroes and should include statues of personalities or characters such as Christopher Columbus, Junípero Serra or Walt Disney.
February 12, 2025
Donald Trump elected president of Kennedy Center
Trump was elected president of Kennedy Center after having ousted the longtime president Deborah Rutter and appointed several relatives, including former ambassador Richard Grenell as interim director. Founded in 1971, the Kennedy Center is the first center of the country’s arts and spectacle and is partly funded by federal funds.
“I am happy to announce that Richard Grenell shares my vision of an American golden age and culture and will supervise the daily operations of the center. No more transvestite shows or other anti -American propaganda, place to the best ” said the president.
March 3, 2025
The Trump administration removes offices from GSA fine arts and historic conservation
The DOGE (Department of Government Effectiveness), the Commission directed by Elon Musk which aims to reduce public spending, has abolished five regional offices from two GSA entities (General Services Administration, an American government agency created in 1949 to manage federal goods): GSA Fine Arts and GSA Historic Prevation, responsible for commanding and preserving the collection of federal art.
The closure of these offices is likely to affect the conservation of historical buildings and federal works of art (around 26,000 works distributed in public buildings).
March 14, 2025
Donald Trump removes the Institute of Museum and Library Service (IMLS)
Read the White House press release
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is a federal agency founded in 1996, bringing together several already existing services and which supports more than 123,000 libraries and 35,000 museums across the United States. The agency employs 75 employees and received a subsidy of 268 million euros in 2024.
Aware that this decision can be invalidated by the congress, he asked for the elimination of the agency “Until the maximum point authorized by law”. He appointed to his head, to ensure the interim, Keith Sonderling, current Minister Delegate for Labor, who hastened to declare that he was going to “Revitalize” the agency.
March 18, 2025
Under pressure from Donald Trump, the president of the NEH resigns
The president of the National Endowment for the Humanités (Neh), Shelly C. Lowe, an Amerindian who had been appointed to this position by the Biden administration in 2021 resigned on March 18, 2025 under pressure from the Trump administration. African-American Maria Rosario Jackson had resigned from her post as president of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) on January 17, a few days before the inauguration of Donald Trump.
