Following in the footsteps of Donald Trump’s business advisory council, his advisory committee on cultural policy, the Committee on the Arts and Humanities, has decided that they’re outta here too.
The Associated Press reports that almost every single member of the council has quit, with an official letter signed by Kal Penn, Chuck Close, Jhumpa Lahiri, and others. The only missing signature is that of Broadway director George C. Wolfe, who did not respond to a question from the AP as to why.
According to the Washington Post, a number of council members quit after Trump won the election, but most agreed to stick around until he appointed new people. Unsurprisingly, it hasn’t been a priority of the administration. Trump’s horrific comments about the white supremacist-led violence in Charlottesville was finally enough for the remaining members to draft a resignation letter appropriate to the occasion.
The letter starts:
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 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 you words and actions.
Then it finishes with a call for Trump’s own resignation:
Supremacy, discrimination, and vitriol are not American values. Your values are not American values. We must be better than this. We are better than this. If this is not clear to you, then we call on you to resign your office, too.
Hold for Trump’s tweets about Penn’s failing acting career when he finds out about this resignation on Fox News.