The ceremony of the 68th edition of the Grammy Awardsin the early hours of Monday, the 2nd, served to distribute the most important awards in the recording industry, but not only that, as it was also the stage for a long-running battle between big names in the arts in the United States and the Administration of Donald Trump – something that, in fact, already occurred during the New York magnate’s first term.
This time, at the center of the criticism was the controversial actions of ICE, a federal police force that allows its agents to act masked, without identification, traveling in unmarked cars and with authorization to be able, for example, to enter homes without a judicial warrant in search of illegal immigrants. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein’s phone calls have also not been forgotten. Grammy presenter Trevor Noah associated Trump’s interest in Greenland with the fact that Epstein’s private island, where he organized parties with famous guests and where he took his victims of sex trafficking, was no longer available, one of the crimes for which he was arrested in 2019 (in the same year, he committed suicide in his cell). Trump was not pleased and responded with the threat of a lawsuit.
Shutting down critics, in any way, is, in fact, a way of working that the American president frequently uses. Several documentaries about Trump’s rise to power identify that the moment that made him move forward with a candidacy for President was the roast which Barack Obama dedicated to him in White House Correspondents’ Dinnerin 2011. Trump watched it all in loco and he did not hide his embarrassment, having, however, transformed the yellow smile of that night into fuel so that, five years later, he would be the one to succeed Obama in the White House.
More recently, faced with the threat of a lawsuit (Trump complained about the editing of an interview with Kamala Harris, which was intended to favor his rival in the 2024 Presidential Election), Paramount, which owns CBS, agreed to pay 13.5 million euros to the leader in the USA and, a few days later, the end of the program was announced The Late Night Show by Stephen Colbert, comedian and fierce critic of Trump.
The examples don’t stop there: another comedian, Jimmy Kimmel, also saw his talk show at risk: ABC (owned by Disney) even suspended the program, claiming that the decision had to do with comments that Kimmel had made about the death of activist and Trump ally, Charlie Kirk, but would back down on this intention after a wave of calls for a boycott of Disney services from the comedian’s fans (it should be added that ABC was also facing the threat of having its broadcasting license suspended by the North American telecommunications regulator).
Another example of Trump’s troubled relationship with the world of arts was the decision to add his name to Kennedy’s at the famous Cultural Center that annually distinguishes cultural personalities, which led to a stampede of several artists who had shows already scheduled in the room. The answer arrived this week: the US president ordered the center to close for two years for renovation work.
Little by little Trump may win some battles in this fight. But not the war against the artists who contest it. An excerpt from the lyrics Song Without Endfrom A Garota Não, summarizes well why this is inevitability: “They can decree to shut you up; They can say that our voice is a mistake; they can decree the end of art; And we make a song about it.”
Executive Editor of Diário de Notícias
Leave a Reply