Trumps again opt out of Kennedy Centre Honours

WASHINGTON: For the second year in a row, President Donald Trump and fi rst lady Melania Trump will not be at the Kennedy Center Honours gala, which will be held Dec 2.

Melania Trump’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said on Tuesday that “at this time” the couple are not planning to attend the annual fundraiser. The 2018 Honours will salute the lifetime achievements of four artistes — composer Philip Glass, singer- actresses Cher and Reba McEntire, and jazz musician Wayne Shorter — as well as the creative team behind the groundbreaking musical “Hamilton.”

The Kennedy Centre declined to comment.

Last year, the Trumps announced in August that they would skip the December gala, a highlight of the Washington social calendar, after several recipients said they would not attend a White House reception hosted by the president.

Presidents have no say in the choice of honorees — they are selected by a Kennedy Centre committee from nominations by the public and past winners — but they have hosted preperformance receptions at the White House and sit with the award winners throughout the star- studded salutes. Every president has attended since 1978, although Jimmy Carter skipped it in 1979 because of the Iran hostage crisis and George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton were absent because of trips to Europe in 1989 and 1994. President Barack Obama arrived late in 2015. In those cases, the fi rst ladies served as hosts.

Trump, who is expected to be in Argentina for the G-20 summit Nov 30-Dec 1, has twice called for the elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts, the federal agency that supports dance, theatre, media and other artistic endeavours in cities across the country. Last year, the members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities collectively resigned in a letter that criticised Trump’s “hateful rhetoric.” — WP-Bloomberg