In an ideal world, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts would be making headlines for the dramas on its stages, not the drama surrounding its existence as the Kennedy Center. Since President Donald Trump’s hostile takeover last year, the storied institution has become a staging ground for his delusions of cultural relevance. Wednesday’s removal of a massive metal artwork called “Blue” is the latest in a string of unnecessary transformations that have made respect for the arts secondary to the president’s whims.

The New York Times noted that the installation “was targeted for elimination after President Trump’s takeover of the center,” but it’s unclear precisely what prompted its removal. It might have been doomed by its placement on the Reach, the 2019 outdoor expansion of the Kennedy Center that Trump reportedly dislikes. But given the lack of transparency from the center about the work, which was apparently meant to be a permanent installation, and the reasoning behind its eviction, makes the crane-assisted vanishing act seem arbitrary and mean.

The stick figure-esque sculpture clearly doesn’t fit the president’s aesthetic vibe. (It’s hard to imagine him appreciating art that is even remotely abstract or any that falls outside the classical standards his administration has made the benchmark for beauty in Washington.) It’s lunacy that we’re even considering that a president’s personal aesthetic might be a consideration for what artwork is displayed at the Kennedy Center, but this is our new normal.

Since Trump hollowed out the center’s board and replaced the ousted board members with his own hangers-on, keeping the self-appointed chairman happy seems to have become the board’s chief concern. Fundraising and talent booking fell by the wayside as the board voted to add the president’s name to the building — above Kennedy’s! Attendance has cratered as artists have canceled performances in protest of Trump’s takeover.

Staffers who stayed on after the coup d’arts struggled to handle the resulting chaos. In The Atlantic, Josef Palmero, the Kennedy Center’s first curator of visual arts, wrote about the whiplash-inducing changes at the center before he was laid off in March, including remodeling the building’s historic lounges to essentially pawn off naming rights to wealthy figures. Palmero said the following about an order he allegedly got from then-director Richard Grenell:

When Grenell instructed me to “get rid of” the center’s permanent art collection because we needed new art to adorn the building’s walls after its renovation, I was taken aback by his cavalier attitude. If the donors of the works didn’t want to pay for their removal, he said, we could put them up for auction or give them away. My mind raced immediately to the eight-foot, 3,000-pound brass bust of President Kennedy standing in the Grand Foyer. Designed by the sculptor Robert Berks, it is surely the most significant item in the center’s collection. When I reported the order to another top leader, his eyes grew wide; he told me not to do anything, and said his office would handle it. I can only hope that the bust—and all the other works—will be safe when the center closes its doors.

(A Kennedy Center spokesperson told The Atlantic that any artwork moved into the building’s archives was done to “ensure safekeeping” during renovations.)

At every step of the way, Trump has reacted to any opposition with petulance and retribution. When a court ordered the center to take Trump’s name off the building, workers were made to hang a massive tarp over where his name had been to hide his defeat from the world. Rather than admit that the Kennedy Center is financially collapsing because of Trump’s takeover and the subsequent mismanagement, the administration has claimed that it needs to be closed for needed renovations. Now the board has voted to add “Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” under the center’s name.

Justice Department lawyers even claimed in a legal filing last month that Trump can demolish the Kennedy Center, like he demolished the East Wing of the White House, if he doesn’t get his way. The unexplained removal of “Blue” appears to be yet another tantrum from a president who hasn’t gotten his way.

In the grand scheme of things, art is subjective and “Blue” being carted off from the Kennedy Center is relatively small potatoes. But this saga serves as a reminder of how all-encompassing the MAGA worldview truly is. Art that has been there for years isn’t art Trump would have chosen. In the eyes of Trump and his devotees, that means it has no value.

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