13 February—Donald Trump’s barely confirmed, steadfastly loyal, but otherwise unqualified war secretary is hinting that his liege lord is about to throw Ukraine under the tank—Russia’s T-14 Armata. And given the blindly and gutlessly subservient House and Senate Republican majorities, we can pretty well count on it. Trump will exact revenge for his first impeachment. We can certainly count on that. That’s one of the perks of being a tyrant.

In the meantime, Trump’s latest tyrannical abomination concerns the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, known simply as the Kennedy Center. By dint of his tyrannical authority, America’s Philistine-in-chief made himself chairman of the federally funded national cultural institution that has enjoyed bipartisan and generally apolitical support—as well as a sterling reputation throughout the world—since it opened in 1971.

(Matthew Arnold defined Philistines as “people who believe most that our greatness and welfare are proved by our being very rich, and who most give their lives and thoughts to becoming rich.” And that’s Donald Trump to a tee. Taste to him is extravagance and opulence.)

So last week, after announcing that he’d be naming himself chairman, Trump canned all the unsubservient trustees (like those appointed by Joe Biden) and then appointed his own ass-kissers in their place. Thus he was able to boast on his sickie website, “It is a Great Honor to be Chairman of The Kennedy Center, especially with this amazing Board of Trustees. We will make The Kennedy Center a very special and exciting place!”

Trump’s idea of excitement, outside of feeling up and forcing himself on women, is anybody’s guess. But his dicktatorial plans for the Kennedy Center don’t include hosting drag shows that are “specifically targeting our youth” or other “anti-American propaganda.” And he’s “going to make sure that it’s good and it’s not going to be woke. There’s no more woke in this country.”

To make room for Trump, the new Kennedy Center sycophants had to fire David Rubenstein, the chairman since 2010. Rubenstein is a self-made billionaire, principal owner of the Baltimore Orioles, and an exceedingly active philanthropist. A listing of his philanthropic activity is truly impressive. Suffice to say that he’s among the nabobs who have pledged to donate more than half their wealth to philanthropic causes or charities as part of The Giving Pledge.

(Okay. One small example. In 2007 Rubenstein purchased the last privately owned copy of Magna Carta for $21.3 million and lent it to the National Archives in Washington and in 2011 he gave $13.5 million to the National Archives for a new gallery and visitor center.)

Can you imagine Trump as a philanthropist? Can you imagine Trump giving anything away? Anything at all?

So what we have to look forward to now, during Trump’s tyrannical presidency, is the politicization of the arts and even more censorship than we suffer at the moment. Think of the arts and censorship under Hitler and Stalin.

No surprise that the Kennedy Center has since Trump’s cultural coup lost a number of celebrities and other good people from the board and other positions. And that’s only the start. Respect is next to go . . .