Kal Penn, presidential arts committee members resign in Trump protest
UPDATE: In response to the members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities resigning, the White House claimed Trump had already decided to disband the group.
NEW: White House responds to @kalpenn and others resigning the arts commission, says Trump was going to disband it anyway: pic.twitter.com/9Xi2mzN7av
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) August 18, 2017
But actor Kal Penn didn’t agree with the White House’s statement.
Lol @realDonaldTrump you can't break up with us after we broke up with you LMFAO https://t.co/bNy240RNQA
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) August 18, 2017
EARLIER: In a growing trend amongst presidential advisory boards, the remaining members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities have resigned.
On Friday morning, Designated Survivor actor and committee member Kal Penn tweeted out the resignation letter, citing Trump’s “both sides” comments after the white supremacist riots Charlottesville, Virginia, which left one woman dead and many others injured.
“Reproach and censure in the strongest possible terms are necessary following your support of the hate groups and terrorists who killed and injured fellow Americans in Charlottesville,” the members wrote in the joint letter to the President. “The false equivalencies you push cannot stand. The Administration’s refusal to quickly and unequivocally condemn the cancer of hatred only further emboldens those who wish America ill. We cannot sit idly by, the way that your West Wing advisors have, without speaking out against your words and actions.”
Members of the group, which was founded in 1982 during Ronald Reagan’s administration and advises the White House on cultural issues, were hopeful that by remaining on the committee they would be able to continue its important work. First Lady Melania Trump is the honorary chairwoman of the committee.
The committee also stated that “ignoring your hateful rhetoric would have made us complicit in your words and actions.”
Prior to Friday’s resignation, committee members included Penn, Paula Boggs, Chuck Close, and George C. Wolfe, all of whom were all holdovers from the Obama Administration.
Many members of the committee quit after Trump’s victory last fall, but the remaining people reportedly agreed to continue serving in until the Trump Administration named replacements.
Read the entirety of the letter here:
Dear @realDonaldTrump, attached is our letter of resignation from the President's Committee on the Arts & the Humanities @PCAH_gov pic.twitter.com/eQI2HBTgXs
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) August 18, 2017
As Soledad O’Brien pointed out on Twitter, the first letter of each paragraph in the note spells out “RESIST.”
Melania Trump is the Honorary Chair of group resigning bc of the President's actions. Note: the first letter of each paragraph spells RESIST https://t.co/inQh5Gda9b
— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) August 18, 2017