TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP FAMILY/MELANIA: “The White House announced early Saturday [8-19-17] that President Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, would not participate in this year’s Kennedy Center Honors, ‘to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction.’
The decision was another episode in an already fraught week for the White House. Mr. Trump has become increasingly isolated after a series of comments about the white supremacist marches in Charlottesville, Va. Concerned about being aligned with Mr. Trump, business leaders on the Strategic and Policy Forum agreed to disband this past week. And on Friday, all 16 members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities resigned in protest of Mr. Trump’s comments…
Mr. and Mrs. Trump’s decision not to attend the Kennedy Center celebration means that it will be just the fourth time in the program’s 40-year history that a president will not be in attendance. In 1994, President Bill Clinton skipped the event while on his way to Budapest for a conference. In 1989, President George Bush was preoccupied with a summit meeting in Malta with Mikhail S. Gorbachev. In 1979, Jimmy Carter did not attend because of the Iran hostage crisis.”
-Noah Weiland, “Donald and Melania Trump to Skip Kennedy Center Honors,” The New York Times online, Aug. 19, 2017