President Trump proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities in the budget he released Friday, taking aim once again at two agencies that he had tried and failed to get rid of during his first term.
The endowments, along with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, were among the entities listed in a section titled “small agency eliminations” in his budget blueprint for the next fiscal year. The document said that the proposal was “consistent with the president’s efforts to decrease the size of the federal government to enhance accountability, reduce waste, and reduce unnecessary governmental entities” and noted that Mr. Trump’s past budget proposals had “also supported these eliminations.”
In 2017, during his first term, Mr. Trump proposed eliminating both the arts and the humanities endowments. But bipartisan support in Congress kept them alive, and in fact their budgets grew during the first Trump administration.
Since Mr. Trump returned to office this year, his administration has taken aim at the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, canceling most of their existing grants and laying off a large portion of their staffs. But the arts agency had yet to announce major cuts.
The proposal to eliminate the endowments drew a quick and furious reaction from Democrats. One, Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, vowed to fight the plan to eliminate the N.E.A. “tooth and nail.”
Representative Chellie Pingree of Maine, who serves as the top Democrat on the House subcommittee overseeing the N.E.A., said in an interview that Mr. Trump was “making a broad-based attack on the arts, both for funding and content.” She cited his proposals to eliminate the endowments as well as his takeover of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington and his efforts to influence the Smithsonian Institution.
“We were able to restore the funding last time,” she said, “but as you know, based on the first 100 days of this administration, they’re in no mood to keep much of government alive anymore, and their attack is focused on everything, and the arts have already got a bull’s-eye on their back.”
At the Kennedy Center, the new leaders installed by Mr. Trump have worked to cut costs and reduce staff. On Friday they dismissed another 21 employees in several departments, according to two people with knowledge of the firings. Since Mr. Trump took over the center, roughly 40 of its staff members have lost their jobs.
The Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
The N.E.A. supports arts organizations and projects in every congressional district in the country, which has traditionally made it popular with lawmakers in both major parties. Many of its individual grants are modest in size. But they can be important, particularly for smaller organizations, where they make up a larger percentage of the budget. The grants are often seen as marks of distinction, which can help attract potential donors from the private sector.
The arts endowment has been without a permanent leader since Maria Rosario Jackson, who was appointed by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., resigned when Mr. Trump took office. Mary Anne Carter, who served as the agency’s chair during the first Trump administration, has been overseeing the agency this year, with the title of senior adviser.
The Trump administration had already upended the endowment’s distribution of grants. Shortly after the second term began, the N.E.A. announced it was eliminating grants this year from a program supporting projects for underserved groups and communities.
Then the agency announced that it would require grant applicants to promise not to promote “diversity, equity and inclusion” or “gender ideology” in ways that run afoul of President Trump’s executive orders — creating confusion and concern among arts groups applying for grants. Both requirements were put on hold as court challenges were considered, and recently the agency posted a notice suggesting that it would no longer require grant applicants to certify that they will not promote gender ideology but will expect the agency’s chair to review grant applications in accord with statutory requirements.
The arts endowment, established in 1965, is a federal agency that distributes grants to arts organizations and state arts agencies across the country. Its budget was $207 million in 2024, and its financial report that year said it had provided more than $163 million in grants.
Even as it moves to shut down the arts endowment in fiscal year 2026, the Trump administration is moving to redirect some of its already appropriated funding.
Last month, the National Endowment for the Humanities announced that it and the arts endowment would each contribute $17 million to build President Trump’s proposed National Garden of American Heroes, a patriotic sculpture park that is central to his plans for commemorating the 250th anniversary of American independence next year.
Javier C. Hernández and Jennifer Schuessler contributed reporting.
