ENTERTAINMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Jane Chu, the chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Arts, announced that she would step down from her post in June, according to a statement released by the N.E.A. last week. Now, it will fall on President Trump to appoint the new head of an agency that he has tried and failed to eliminate twice. Even so, Ms. Chu’s statement contained no reference to the uncertainty the N.E.A. has faced since Mr. Trump took office…Since Ms. Chu was appointed by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate in 2014, the agency has doled out more than $400 million in grants in all 50 states. She was on the road often, making hundreds of trips to arts communities all over the country. Her efforts have earned the agency widespread bipartisan support, including from key Republican senators like Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. In the recent $1.3 trillion spending bill, a Republican-controlled Congress actually gave the N.E.A. a slight increase in its budget, a direct rebuff to Mr. Trump.”
-Sopan Deb, “N.E.A. Chairwoman to Step Down in June,” The New York Times online, May 2, 2018