The Trump budget acts the dismantling of federal support for the arts

Voted on July 3 after weeks of discussion, the federal budget 2025 (Oct) 2026 (seven) – nicknamed One Big Beautiful Bill -Mark a radical turning point in the history of the cultural policy of the United States. The text, supported by the republican majority and promoted by Donald Trump, confirms the abolition of the main federal cultural agencies. As of this exercise, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) are deprived of any means of action, their credits being reduced by almost 90 %. However, during Trump’s first term, the congress had opposed its repeated requests to remove the NEA and the NEH and even increased their budget.

NEA and NEH, pillars of public funding for culture and human sciences since 1965, have so far been endowed approximately 207 million dollars annually. These stable amounts for three years made it possible to support thousands of artistic, museum, heritage or educational initiatives throughout the territory, often outside the major urban centers. The new budget brings these endowments to $ 29 million each, or sums only intended for the administrative closure of agencies. More than 1,200 subsidies already allocated were canceled in the spring.

The IMLS, which financed local museums and public libraries, sees its budget go from 295 to 39 million dollars, also sealing its disappearance in the short term. This withdrawal strikes in particular rural areas and small institutions, which depended on these funds to ensure digitization, accessibility and school programs.

At the same time, large federal institutions are also affected. The Smithsonian, the country’s first museum network, saw its reduced envelope by 12 %, from $ 1,094 to $ 959 million. The Anacostia museum, devoted to local African-American history, loses all federal funding, as is the National Museum of the American Latino project, however authorized by the Congress in 2020. The National Gallery of Art undergoes a 15 % cup and the 34 % Kennedy Center.

This series of reductions is part of an assumed budgetary strategy: that of the cultural disengagement of the federal state. The Trump administration justifies these measures by the desire to refocus public spending on priorities “Essential”believing that support for the arts is a matter of private states or sector. But at the same time, the funds of NEA and NEH are redirected to the creation of the National Garden of American Heroes, a statuary park promoted by Trump since 2020. Endowed with 40 million dollars, this project aims to celebrate American historical figures according to a “patriotic” ideological vision.

These cuts weigh little in the 2025-2026 federal budget which amounts to $ 7,000 billion, including 2,000 billion in deficit, or 7 % of GDP. The France’s budget deficit amounts to 2024 to 5.8 % of GDP. The American budget is marked on one side by massive tax cuts and on the other of drastic cuts in the Medicaid health protection program and that of relief from students’ debts.