President Donald Trump got two reminders this week about the limits of his influence.
Despite serving two terms in the White House, remaking the Republican Party in his image and wielding powers that many of his predecessors never enjoyed, Trump encountered setbacks in his efforts to extend that dominance into the cultural sphere.
The most visible moment came at Madison Square Garden, where the president was met with loud boos while attending Game 3 of the NBA Finals. Less dramatic but perhaps equally symbolic was a federal judge’s decision to reverse an effort to add Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center, forcing the institution to remove it from its branding.
The two episodes represented Trump’s attempts to influence both ends of the cultural spectrum — from the sporting event watched across the country to one of the nation’s premier cultural institutions in Washington.
A lot of people see these as distractions, an attempt to get voters riled up about a side issue while the real fights happen out of sight.
I don’t. I’ve said for years that the culture wars aren’t a distraction; they are the playbook.
Culture shapes identity. It shapes belonging. It shapes what people view as normal, acceptable and true. Long before elections are won or lost, culture helps shape the lens through which people understand politics itself.
Long before he got into politics, Trump sought that cultural legitimacy, making cameos in TV and movies, starring in pizza ads and whining when he didn’t win an Emmy.
When he first became president, it sometimes seemed like he was more excited about the trappings of the office than the tremendous powers at his command. But even as he’s learned to flex those powers in his second term, he still seems to crave cultural legitimacy.
That helps explain the fight over the Kennedy Center.
The battle was never really about a building. It was about what the institution represents. The Kennedy Center occupies a unique place in American civic life, and association with it carries a kind of prestige and legitimacy that politics alone cannot provide.
The same dynamic is visible in America’s upcoming 250th anniversary celebration.
This should be a moment for the country. A chance for Americans to reflect on our history, our triumphs, our failures and the unfinished work of our democracy.
Instead, the line between celebrating the nation and celebrating the president is becoming increasingly blurred.
That is not accidental.
If you can shape the symbols, institutions and narratives that define national identity, you gain influence that extends beyond any election cycle.
And the pursuit of that influence does not stop with sports, celebrities or national celebrations — it extends to the institutions that help Americans make sense of public life.
It’s no coincidence that Trump’s attempts to inject himself into the nation’s cultural discourse are happening as so many of its institutions are under attack, from CBS News to the Smithsonian to our most prestigious colleges.
Trump may have his own personal reasons for craving this legitimacy, but the movement behind him understands its power.
If a political movement can control which facts are reported as news, whose history is highlighted in our museums and what perspectives we’re taught at our colleges, it will have control over our culture itself.
That control is ultimately about determining whose story gets told. Who gets to define what is considered true and what is treated as normal. Who gets heard, and who does not.
Don’t forget to subscribe to “MS NOW Presents: Clock It,” Symone Sanders Townsend’s new podcast series with Eugene Daniels on the latest political news, the catchiest cultural moments and how they converge. Listen to the latest episode here.
Symone D. Sanders Townsend is a co-host of "The Weeknight," which airs Monday through Friday at 7 p.m. ET on MS NOW.