The White House on Wednesday fired nearly every member of the National Council on the Humanities, leaving the 26-member board with just four members appointed by President Donald Trump.
“On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as a member of the National Council on the Humanities is terminated, effective immediately,” read an email sent to council members Wednesday morning, reviewed by The Washington Post. “Thank you for your service.”
By late Wednesday morning as federal funding lapsed, the council updated its website to remove 22 of its members, leaving just Russell A. Berman, Keegan F. Callanan, William English and Matthew Rose.
A White House official confirmed the firings to NOTUS, saying, “The work of the National Council on the Humanities is important to the President and his vision for the country. The President is hoping to place members on the board who align more closely with his vision.”
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The council is responsible for advising the chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities on grantmaking, policy and funding decisions. The council was scheduled to attend a meeting next week to review statue proposals for Trump’s $34 million statue garden.
Some of the fired board members were appointed by Trump.
Karen A. Stout, a member of the council since 2022, learned of her removal from the council through a Post reporter.
“This is just, frankly, very disappointing,” she told The Post. “All of us, no matter who appointed us, were proud to serve on the council and were doing our best under both administrations to honor the work of the council and the direction of the administrations … I never looked at my colleagues on the council as Trump or Obama or Biden appointees.”
Trump has paid special attention to the country’s cultural organizations during his second term, instituting sweeping changes and purging membership rolls as part of his quest to rid the government of “improper ideology.”
In February, just a month into his second term, Trump dismissed all the board members of the Kennedy Center and named himself chair of the storied institution. Since then, the center has canceled various cultural events, announced renovations and proposed renaming the Opera House after first lady Melania Trump. One House Republican, Rep. Bob Onder of Missouri, even introduced legislation to rename the center to the “Donald J. Trump Center for the Performing Arts.”
Eight of the Smithsonian Institution’s museums are also currently undergoing federal review, while Trump has expressed interest in expanding the probe to other museums across the country.
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