Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldElon Musk\u2019s cost-cutting team has set its sights on the National Gallery of Art, as the billionaire\u2019s so-called Department of Government Efficiency looks beyond gutting federal agencies to targeting pillars of the US\u2019s cultural life.Emissaries from Doge visited the premier cultural institution in Washington DC \u2014 which houses world-class collections of European and American art \u2014 on Thursday and met with the museum\u2019s leadership, according to people familiar with the matter, despite the gallery ostensibly operating at arm\u2019s-length from the White House.Doge\u2019s intentions at the National Gallery are as yet unclear and a representative for the initiative did not respond to a request for comment.\u00a0But the move by Doge comes as the Trump administration expands an assault on the US\u2019s cultural institutions as part of its war against so-called \u201cwoke\u201d ideology. The president last month issued an executive order entitled \u201cRestoring Truth and Sanity to American History\u201d that took aim at the Smithsonian Institution for its depictions of race and gender.Trump has also taken control of the Kennedy Center \u2014 Washington DC\u2019s largest and most prominent performing arts venue \u2014 pledging that there would be \u201cno more drag shows or other anti-American propaganda\u201d at the site. The move prompted a backlash from artists and performers.The National Gallery has so far escaped the wrath of the administration. Members of the new cabinet even celebrated Trump\u2019s inauguration at the venue in January.Following donations of Old Master paintings and sculptures from then Treasury secretary and prodigious collector Andrew Mellon, the gallery was formally established by Congress in 1937. It is run by a board composed of US Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts, the Treasury secretary, the secretary of state, and five trustees.The vast bulk of the National Gallery\u2019s funding, however, comes from the annual federal budget \u2014 which Doge has vowed to slash by $1tn. In the last fiscal year, the museum received almost $210mn from the US government, which allowed the institution to pay salaries and keep admission free for all.In January, the National Gallery removed references to diversity and inclusion from its website, after an executive order signed by Donald Trump deemed such initiatives \u201cillegal\u201d. The move came just months after the gallery asked Congress for more funds, in part to ensure it could \u201cfocus on diversity, equity, access, and inclusion\u201d and diversify its collection to \u201cinclude more under-represented artists and groups\u201d.In a statement responding to Doge\u2019s visit, the National Gallery emphasised it was an \u201cindependent trust establishment of the United States created by an act of Congress in 1937\u201d.\u201cAs a public-private partnership, we have worked with every administration since our inception and will continue to work with the Administration and Congress while we remain focused on fulfilling our mission to preserve and share artistic excellence with all Americans,\u201d it said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldElon Musk\u2019s cost-cutting team has set its sights on the National Gallery of Art, as the billionaire\u2019s so-called Department of Government Efficiency looks beyond<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":283155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-283154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283156,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283154\/revisions\/283156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}