Bill Maher says it’s ‘so stupid’ for anti-Trump artists to not perform at Kennedy Center

Bill Maher gets this one right, and it's a little startling to hear it said out loud on television. Artists boycotting the Kennedy Center because Trump wants his name on it isn't a principled stand. It's a tantrum dressed up as one. You're punishing the venue, the staff, and most of all the audience because you don't like who's chairman.

The Kennedy Center isn't a Trump property. It's a national cultural institution that happens to have a president-appointed board, which is how it's always worked no matter who's in office. Refusing to play there doesn't cost Trump anything. He's not the one losing a paycheck or missing a chance to see a show. The people who lose are the folks in DC who wanted to see live music and now don't get to, plus the artists themselves, who are ceding a national stage rather than actually using it to say whatever it is they claim they want to say.

Maher's point, that this is "so stupid," lands because it's true on its own terms, not because he's some MAGA convert. If you think Trump is a threat to the country, the answer is showing up and being loudly, visibly not-Trump on his own turf, not clearing the stage for him. Empty chairs don't send a message. They just mean less art and more silence, which is a strange way to fight someone you claim wants to silence you.