Editorial: Curiouser and Curiouser
By • June 10, 2025 0 83
“Are their heads off?” shouted the Queen.
“Their heads are gone, if it please your Majesty!” the soldiers shouted in reply.
“That’s right!” shouted the Queen.
Here in Don-derland, the ax falls without warning.
Last February, the Kennedy Center suffered a double decapitation: of Deborah F. Rutter, president since 2014, and of David M. Rubenstein, board chairman since 2010. Rubenstein has donated more than $100 million to the performing arts center, including $50 million to the expansion known as the Reach.
Was the replacement of board members and his own election as chairman within the commander in chief’s prerogative? So it seems, but what many (including this newspaper) have called a hostile takeover was, to say the least, contrary to the Kennedy Center’s 50-plus-year bipartisan tradition. A number of staffers, shows, subscribers and donors have gone missing.
The Library of Congress was beheaded in early May. Dr. Carla Hayden, the first woman and the first person of color to serve as Librarian of Congress — and the first credentialed librarian to do so in decades — was appointed to a 10-year term in 2016 by fellow Chicagoan Barack Obama. The current president had the right to shelve her a year early, but many (including this newspaper) would call it a wrong.
Then, on May 30, the former host of “The Apprentice” posted on Truth Social that he was terminating the employment of National Portrait Gallery Director Kim Sajet. Sen. Gary Peters, a member of the Smithsonian’s board of regents, put it best: “Clearly, the president has no authority whatsoever to fire her. The Smithsonian is an independent institution, and the director of the Smithsonian is the one who she reports to, and that’s the person who makes the decision as to hiring and firing of individuals.”
Last we heard, Sajet (pronounced “sigh-YET) was still on the job.
The Georgetowner considers these eminently qualified leaders to be exemplary public servants with a proven record of success. Their callous removal — attempted, in Sajet’s case — is yet another painful confirmation (but who’s counting?) that we have gone Through the Looking-Glass.
