White House Ballroom Backlash

President Trump’s plan to replace the east wing of the White House with an enormous ballroom has drawn considerable pushback. Critics of the project, on the other hand, have yet to advance what could be their strongest argument. The White House is already equipped for musical performances, and Trump has neglected the original American art form as a vehicle for advancing liberty. 

In 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower launched the “Jazz Ambassadors” program, sending Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington to perform internationally. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy hosted Dave Brubeck and the Paul Winter Jazz Sextet in the East Room of the White House. 

President Lyndon Johnson hosted 16 jazz events, with Duke Ellington, Stan Getz, Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Byrd, and more. President Richard Nixon hosted six jazz programs and held an event for Ellington’s 70th birthday. Presidents Carter, Bush, and Clinton all hosted jazz events at the White House, and President Obama hailed jazz as “perhaps the most honest reflection of what we are as a nation.” That set the stage for President Trump to take action against the worst enemy of liberty in the Western Hemisphere, Cuba’s Communist dictatorship.

Stalinist dictator Fidel Castro denounced jazz as counterrevolutionary and a form of Yankee imperialism. The regime imprisoned Arturo Sandoval for listening to the Voice of America. The trumpeter and pianist defected in 1990 and, appropriately enough, titled one of his albums “Flight to Freedom.” Saxophonist-clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera—another world-class musician—defected in 1980, and it was nine years before the Communist regime allowed his family to join him. 

As the Cuban cinematographer (Days of Heaven) Nestor Almendros showed in Improper Conduct, Castro tossed homosexuals into forced-labor camps. As Orlando Jimenez-Leal showed in 8A, Castro staged show trials and executed potential rivals such as Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa. Castro was an economic crackpot, and his command economy drove the nation into abject poverty. 

After seizing power in 1959, Castro launched the libreta rationing system. A year after his death in 2016 Cubans’ diet was decidedly on the meager side, and last year the regime slashed the daily bread ration by one fourth, from 80 grams to 60 grams, approximately 2.1 ounces. Nations barren of liberties are also barren of groceries, and under communism, you get only what the government wants you to have. Despite this oppressive record, the communist regime has drawn support from American politicians such as Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass, a former member of Congress once on Joe Biden’s short list as a running mate. 

In 1973, at age 19, Bass traveled to Cuba with the Venceremos Brigade, organized by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the keystone of the New Left, and the Castro dictatorship. Bass says she built houses, toured the country and listened to speeches by Fidel Castro. When the white Stalinist died in 2016, Bass said in a statement: “The passing of the Comandante en Jefe is a great loss to the people of Cuba.” Cubans could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. 

On her many trips to Cuba, and in all her political career, Bass never took up the cause of a single Cuban political prisoner, including Afro-Cuban Eusebio Peñalver. The California Democrat never supported the brave damas en blanco (ladies in white), who seek the release of political prisoners and freedom for all Cubans. 

The Bush, Obama and Biden administrations did nothing to advance liberty in Cuba. President Trump should invite Arturo Sandoval and Paquito D’Rivera to put together a band and perform in the White House. Trump could then send them forth around the world as jazz ambassadors in the style of Dizzy Gillespie, a mentor to Sandoval and many others. 

“All through history, there have been tyrants and murderers,” Mahatma Gandhi said, “and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always.” Like the Soviet colonies in Eastern Europe, Cuba’s Communist regime is going to fall. A troupe of jazz ambassadors could bring hope to the Cuban people, who have suffered enough. 

A free, democratic Cuba, with a thriving market economy, would be an inspiration to nations far and wide. A free and prosperous Cuba would also a better legacy than a ballroom that, despite private funding, shapes up as Trump’s monument to himself.