When conservatives think of the National Endowment for the Arts, they think about government-funded outrages like Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ,” featuring a crucifix pictured in a glass of the artist’s urine. On Friday's All Things Considered, NPR found a new subsidy scandal, that Trump’s NEA is funding patriotic art, including pro-Ronald Reagan material.
The headline:
Patriotic art gets the spotlight as NEA funding shifts. Cue 'The Ronald Reagan Overture'
NPR arts reporter Chloe Veltman began at the Reagan Presidential Library, where “A regional group, the New West Symphony, created 'The Ronald Reagan Overture' with the help of a $25,000 Garden of American Heroes grant from the NEA.” Trump wants the NEA to honor heroic Americans.
VELTMAN: The NEA funds far more than patriotic programming, but this being the 250th anniversary year, there's a particular emphasis on national pride. In 2025, the Trump administration rescinded about $21 million in NEA grants, according to advocacy nonprofit Americans for the Arts. The money was pulled from projects around the country that did not meet the administration's funding objectives, for example, if they were too focused on diversity and inclusion. The administration said it was prioritizing grants for more patriotic works, like military band performances.
Horrors! But it wasn’t all terrible news. Juan Dies with the Mexican folk music group Sones De Mexico Ensemble figured he could use the new rules to get some money, with maybe a little DEI spirit in Espanol.
VELTMAN: He repitched the project to the NEA, this time using Trump administration-approved subjects like aviator Amelia Earhart and baseball star Roberto Clemente. The grant came through.
SONES DE MEXICO ENSEMBLE: (Singing in Spanish).
VELTMAN: Like other corridos, Dies' American Heroes ballads are celebratory, but they also don't shy away from darker details. For example, the racism Clemente faced as a high-profile Puerto Rican in the United States.
SONES DE MEXICO ENSEMBLE: (Singing in Spanish).
DIES: I don't feel like we're compromising our goals or mission. By playing with the rules, we are able to give our perspective on the lives of these American heroes.
Ah, American racism! That’s a theme NPR can get behind. Patriotism, not so much. They found their art expert to explain the NPR view:
DAVID LUBIN: There are two forms of patriotism. One is my country, right or wrong, that America is the greatest place on the face of the Earth.
VELTMAN: This is David Lubin. The retired Wake Forest University professor has written books about American art, politics and cultural propaganda.
LUBIN: And then the patriotic emotions of, we can do better and it's our mission in life to keep hewing to the ideals of the origins of the country.
VELTMAN: Lubin says patriotic art is a useful tool for governments because it can unite people around policies and ideologies. But, he says, when a country is as politically divided as ours is today, patriotic art often only ends up reinforcing rifts.
LUBIN: It feeds into thought patterns that are already prevalent among half the population.
We know which "half" that is! It's appalling that lefties always think conservative patriotism is "my country, right or wrong," that it never qualifies as "love of country, and we can do better." They pretend their so-called "critical patriotism" -- endlessly obsessing over why America should never be proud -- is much more thoughtful.
