King Trump hijacks the Kennedy Cultural Center in Washington and drives it to the wall.Image: keystone
Autocrats like the American president fight any culture that is neither propaganda nor flattery. But artists like Bad Bunny, Springsteen and Salman Rushdie are fighting back with ever greater courage.
Feb 15, 2026, 7:32 p.mFeb 15, 2026, 7:32 p.m
Recently, 78-year-old writer Salman Rushdie attended the premiere of the film “Knife,” which is about the knife attack on him, at the Sundance Film Festival in the United States. He took the opportunity to say about the Trumps of this world: “For authoritarians, culture is the enemy.” They would attack culture more and more head-on.
In every authoritarian state, media, research and culture are the first victims. Your funds will be cut off. Trump and his MAGA ensemble mock and sue journalists, researchers and artists who dare not dance to their tune.
“For authoritarians, culture is the enemy”: Salman Rushdie at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.Image: AP Invision
When comedian Trevor Noah joked at the Grammy Gala that Trump now needed the island of Greenland because sex monster Jeffrey Epstein’s private island was no longer available, Trump defamed him as a “total loser” and announced a lawsuit. He openly threatened: Get ready, Noah, I’m going to have some fun with you.” That’s the only answer Trump has: He wants to use the power of money to silence those who join him in the parade.
Authoritarians like Trump are incapable of embracing culture unless it flatters them or is suitable as propaganda. They shoot down everything that is not on their line, argue with the wrecking ball. Since he renamed the Kennedy Cultural Center the “Trump Kennedy Center” and ideologically hijacked it, almost all well-known cultural figures canceled their appearances in various arts.
Protests against the renaming of the Kennedy Center in Washington to the Trump Kennedy Center.Image: The Washington Post
Ticket sales collapsed and the media response was devastating. So Trump quickly closed the center and now wants to convert it according to his wishes: into a location for Trump and Maga festivals. What Trump promotes is gigantic gaga culture and self-congratulation. Ultimately, it sees itself as the largest cultural monument in the USA.
It took a surprisingly long time for US cultural celebrities to effectively rebel against their president. But now every serious American culture is counterculture against Trump, MAGA, ICE. Bruce Springsteen, who shaped US rock music for decades like few others, has just written the right song at the right time: “Streets of Minneapolis”.
“We are not savages, we are not animals”
In it he condemns “King Trump’s private army” ICE. He was already considered one of the clearest Trump critics in the USA. Trump’s response: a crude insult and threat: Springsteen is a “disgusting bastard.” He warned him to keep his mouth shut. The problem, however, is that the “boss” also has many fans among Trump’s supporters.
The currently best-known American pop star Bad Bunny has triggered a real culture war. The US citizen, who comes from Puerto Rico, repeatedly clashes with Trump and his MAGA ideologues. He is famous for the sentences: “Before I thank God, I say… ICE out. We are not savages, we are not animals. We are human beings and we are Americans.” At the Super Bowl halftime show, he performed in Spanish, but his most important messages could also be read in English. “The only thing stronger than hate is love.” And: “Together we are America.”
Bad Bunny is afraid of performing in the USA
Trump described Bunny’s performance as a “slap in the face of our country.” Nobody understands “a word of what this guy says.” In doing so, he ignored around 14 percent of the population in the USA whose native language is Spanish. Former Fox journalist Megyn Kelly, who was loyal to him, was in the same vein: Bad Bunny had “showed the rest of America the stinking finger.” You don’t need an America and ICE hater who doesn’t speak English as primetime entertainment. Otherwise you will lose your culture. Trump will not allow it to get to that point.
The culture people are definitely taking the presidential threats seriously. The singer Bad Bunny is only continuing his current world tour outside the USA. He fears his Latino audience is not safe from ICE access. Other stars such as “Queen” and Philip Glass also refuse to perform in the USA. Trump doesn’t care because he despises all culture that is open, independent and non-ideological.
But what is left culturally? He and his MAGA troupe only promote backwards, tendentious, ridiculous nonsense like the film “Melania” or the grotesque triumphal arch with which Trump wants to immortalize himself. (aargauerzeitung.ch)