President Donald Trump got two reminders this week about the limits of his influence.
Despite serving two terms in the White House, remaking the Republican Party in his image and wielding powers that many of his predecessors never enjoyed, Trump encountered setbacks in his efforts to extend that dominance into the cultural sphere.
The most visible moment came at Madison Square Garden, where the president was met with loud boos while attending Game 3 of the NBA Finals. Less dramatic but perhaps equally symbolic was a federal judge’s decision to reverse an effort to add Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center, forcing the institution to remove it from its branding.
The two episodes represented Trump’s attempts to influence both ends of the cultural spectrum — from the sporting event watched across the country to one of the nation’s premier cultural institutions in Washington.
A lot of people see these as distractions, an attempt to get voters riled up about a side issue while the real fights happen out of sight. I don’t. I’ve said for years that the culture wars aren’t a distraction; they are the playbook.
This is a preview of a column by Symone D. Sanders Townsend. Read the full column here.
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