Trump’s proposed new federal budget to cut all funding to National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities

President Trump's proposed federal budget is due to be released on Thursday and according to The New York Times, it calls for the elimination of the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities:

According to two federal officials with knowledge of the staff meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose the private conversation, the chairwoman, Jane Chu, said the arts endowment would conduct business as usual as the budget-writing process unfolds in Congress, which will take months. Ms. Chu said she called the meeting because she did not want the staff to learn about the proposals from media reports.

Staff members reacted in a professional manner, with a mixture of sadness and some surprise but no visible anger, one of the officials said. Talking points were given to the staff to handle phone calls from endowment grant recipients concerned about their money and the fate of the agencies.

Trump would be the first president to try to eliminate the NEA and NEH since it was enacted in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed legislation that declared "an advanced civilization must not limit its efforts to science and technology alone, but must give full value and support to the other great branches of scholarly and cultural activity in order to achieve a better understanding of the past, a better analysis of the present, and a better view of the future." The combined budget of the NEA and NEH is around $300 million, part of the $1.1 trillion in total annual discretionary spending.