President Donald Trump’s administration was so triggered by a “woke” painting that it had it removed.
For years, a Kehinde Wiley painting titled Young Artists After Siamesas 1960 hung in the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic. The piece, commissioned by the federal government in 2013, shows four Dominican models against a bright floral backdrop. Wiley is perhaps best known for his portrait of former President Barack Obama, which currently hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. It could be that fact that has made the Trump administration so upset.
Either way, the Trump administration just can’t handle the prospect of displaying another one of Wiley’s works. After covering the painting with a large tarp, State Department officials removed the piece last week. Now they’re considering whether they’re allowed to sell it, The New York Times reported Monday.
Speaking on Sean Spicer’s podcast last week, Erin Scavino, the director of art in embassies, described the painting as “very woke” and “aesthetically terrifying”—whatever that means. According to her State Department bio, Scavino is a lawyer whose vague artistic background includes “cultural expression through fluid installation art” and “innovative design residency programs that integrate art with recycled materials, turning waste into creative wonders” (which sounds pretty “woke”). Her presence in the Trump administration probably has less to do with her fluid installations and more to do with the fact that she did a brief stint on The Apprentice and is married to eternal Trump flunkie Dan Scavino, who currently serves as the director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office.
Virginia Shore, who served as director of art in embassies from 2000 to 2017, said there was no precedent for selling the piece. “Calling this ‘woke’ is difficult for me to understand,” she told the Times. “This is a program validated and financially backed under Bush. There is a science of building trust and empathy across borders.”
The Trump administration wasn’t even willing to acknowledge what it is about the painting that offends its sensibilities. In a statement Monday, a State Department spokesperson didn’t address the actual work. Instead, the statement referred to allegations of sexual assault against Wiley, which he has denied, and criticized Wiley for once describing a different artwork as a “play on the ‘kill whitey’ thing.”
“The work of an individual with such violent and racist words and depictions has no place in the America First State Department,” the spokesperson said.
If the Trump administration wanted to get rid of racist art, why reinstall a Confederate statue? Well, because it’s not about that at all. The effort comes amid a wider trend of Trump administration efforts to expunge Black history from American monuments and museums.
Leah Campos, the U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic, celebrated the painting’s removal on Instagram.
“In the Trump Administration and under my leadership we are turning away from globalist and woke ideologies and instead embracing American patriotism and the beauty of our great country!” she wrote, including a video of the painting’s removal edited with the Twisted Sister song, “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” Leave it to the Trump administration to put an antiestablishment song over a video of government censorship.
Canada has hit back at the United States, announcing retaliatory tariffs of up to 50 percent on $20 billion worth of American goods, most notably aluminum, steel, and fish. Trump announced 50 percent tariffs on Canada last month, and threatened to levy even more this week.
Canada’s tariffs will affect a wide variety of U.S. goods beginning September 8, including steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney suspended trade talks with Trump last Friday after the U.S. demanded last-minute concessions regarding Quebec law requiring the U.S. to print manuals and packaging in French—a seemingly minute detail to make a dealbreaker. This of course led Canada to exit talks, as they took it as an attack on their culture and sovereignty.
Now U.S. consumers will pay for the perceived slight.
“Canada must respond, and today we are—in a proportionate, targeted, and strategic way. Today, I am announcing that Canada will match the United States tariffs dollar for dollar, rate for rate. Effective September 8, Canada will impose counter tariffs of up to 15, 25, or 50 percent on $27.6 billion in imports from the United States of America,” Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said on Tuesday. “For each product, our tariff would match the American tariff on the same type of Canadian goods. Those tariffs will have real consequences for Canadian workers, businesses, and communities across our nation. Canada must respond, and today we are in a proportionate, targeted, and strategic way.”
