As I was wresting with what to write about this month, with so many compelling choices, but no strong leading. Trying to capture huge topics in 1,000 words is like trying to put my cats in the cat carrier with one hand tied behind my back. I could end up scratched and bloody with the cats still running free…and with a column that doesn’t shed light on anything.

So, I asked myself what I had enjoyed recently, and it came to me immediately: pulling my stained-glass pieces together for the Art Walk and creating the display at Bloomers last Friday with owner Sandy Lakner and a terrific team of volunteers. I was, atypically, the first one to arrive, and found Sandy surrounded by buckets of flowers as she prepared arrangements for three funerals and a wedding. The others arrived, including Richard Monte with his amazing sculptures crafted from driftwood. As we discussed the nitty-gritty of hooks, screws, and how to hang my stained-glass pelican mobile, I was thankful and a little amazed by all the help I was getting. None of those people had to be there, yet they contribute their time because they recognize the value of supporting art and artists by giving them exhibition space in windows all over town. They also recognize the gift to the public, giving them an opportunity to see the work of artists they might never see otherwise, an education in itself. Thirty-six business display 400 pieces from 52 artists. A crew of 14 volunteers make up the Art Walk crew with Karina Herrera directing it all.

The Trump administration does not value supporting artists and freedom of expression, but they certainly recognize the influence of art and the impact it can have on public opinion. That’s why throughout history authoritarian regimes have targeted artists, intellectuals, comedians, and other free thinkers with condemnation, arrest, deportation, and even death. Much as Trump supporters dislike the comparison drawn to Hitler’s regime, Trump’s actions have paralleled those of Hitler and other authoritarian dictators in history. 

He has targeted talk show personalities (and their networks) and actors who have criticized him: Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Myers, Jimmy Fallon, Robert DeNiro, Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Jane Fonda, Tom Hanks, and many others. Trump knows the power of the entertainment media; after all, he was just a reality show actor with no political experience and a business record of cheating, failing, and bankruptcies, and he got elected anyway.

In multiple executive orders, Trump has attempted to cut funding, gut agencies of experienced employees and replace them with his own unqualified allies, and even completely eliminate agencies that are the backbone of culture in the United States in order to promote his war on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Here are some, but by no means all, of his actions:

 July 7, 2025: Trump and DOGE wanted to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA.) IMLS is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s libraries, museums, and archives; NEH is the largest humanities funder in the United States; and NEA is the largest arts funder in the country. Trump tried to eliminate these agencies in four budget proposals in his first term, but Congress rejected all four.

 NEH awarded over $200 million in 2024 in grants to museums, historic sites, colleges, universities, K–12 teaching, libraries, public television and radio stations, research institutions, and independent scholars.The humanities explore, interpret, and preserve the diversity of human cultures, ideas, practices and experiences, past and present.

 In 2024, the NEA distributed over $142 million across thousands of grants to support public engagement with the arts, arts education, and community cultural projects.

Loss in IMLS funding would have serious impacts in our rural area. IMLS advances, supports, and empowers America’s museums, libraries, and related organizing through grants and research. It is the primary source of funding for local libraries, archives and museums–$266 million in 2024. It supports services for the blind and visually impaired, bookmobiles, free wi-fi and technology for patrons to use, and local programs.

 Here’s how mindless Trump’s actions have been with IMLS: In mid-March 2025, Congress enacted funding through September for IMLS, which Trump signed into law. ON THE SAME DAY, he signed an executive order to eliminate the agency. Two weeks later, the administration and DOGE placed the entire IMLS staff on administrative leave. The next day, the administration brought back 12 staff from leave, with only four of thirty-five staff with prior grant management experience. Scores of libraries and museums and several states received termination notices for previously- committed IMLS grant funding.

 Ongoing shenanigans with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts: Feb. 7, 2025: Trump replaced board members from the Kennedy Center with 14 of his allies who then elected him chair and voted to add his name to the Center. A judge ruled in May 2026 that his name must be removed as the Kennedy Center was created as a venue to solely honor President Kennedy and would require Congressional approval to change the name. The bizarre behavior has continued with his threats to close the Center for two years for renovation, and when that effort was opposed, threaten to demolish it and replace it with an arena. Trump’s fragile ego is so transparent in his thrashing about like a spoiled 4-year old as he exhibits how threatened he is by the popular, successful, sane presidencies of Kennedy and Obama.

 Feb. 11, 2025 - Under the mendacious guise of “government efficiency,” Trump ordered large scale RIFs (reductions in force.) The National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) laid off 70-percent of its workforce, the director forced to resign, and $100 million in grants were cancelled. Fifteen months later, a federal judge ruled that the termination of NEH 1,400 grants was unconstitutional and ordered them reinstated, but the staff had been decimated.

 March 27, 2025 - Trump issued an executive order titled, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” the title itself a masterful example of political obfuscation, (which is technically called astéism.) The 162-page document claims to correct injustices and untruths. It targets the National Museum of African American History and Culture, stating, “Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth….Under this historical revision, our Nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed. Rather than fostering unity and a deeper understanding of our shared past, the widespread effort to rewrite history deepens societal divides and fosters a sense of national shame…The prior administration advanced this corrosive ideology.”

 It also targets the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, which has yet to be built to ensure no funding allocated to the Smithsonian supports “improper ideology,” including that the museum does not “recognize men as women in any respect in the museum.”

 In an amazing accomplishment of double-speak, it says, “Museums in our Nation’s capital should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history” as he attempts to impose his own distorted ideology.

 July 4, 2026: The Domestic Policy Council submits its report, titled “Saving America’s Story,” listing dozens of concerns regarding political activism and leftist ideology at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.

 July 24, 2026: Trump issues an executive order nominally aimed at “restoring trust” in the Smithsonian to install temporary signage on the sidewalks notifying visitors that the museum should be renovated to tell a more truthful American story.

Representative Pete Stauber has a consistent legislative record of voting for federal spending reductions, agency funding cuts, and program rollbacks.

You have clear choices in the upcoming elections to vote your values. Hear what the candidates have to say in upcoming debates and jump in on local organizing with Ely Indivisible at the anniversary party Sept. 15, 5 - 7 p.m. at Northern Grounds, Ely or www.elyindivisible.org.