President Donald Trump faced criticism and mockery on social media after he accused the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts of being “woke,” before admitting within seconds that he hadn’t actually seen any shows there.
Talking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump was asked why he wants to become the chair of the board of the national cultural center in Washington, D.C.
“I want to make sure it runs properly,” replied the president, who announced his new board position last week while also slamming drag performances hosted at the venue.
“We don’t need woke at the Kennedy Center,” Trump continued. “Some of the shows were terrible, a disgrace that they were even put on. So I’ll be there until such time as it gets to be running right.”
Trump was asked: “Have you seen any shows there? How do you know they are terrible?”
He conceded, “I didn’t go, no.”
“I got reports,” he added. “They were so bad, I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to go! There was nothing that I wanted to see.”
He then ended the conversation.
Trump supporters argued that the president didn’t need to have attended any shows at the center to know what they were about.
Critics, though, said the opinionated remarks without actual first-hand analysis were Trump and his MAGA movement “in a nutshell.”
