第二步：精读重点段落

[4] There is his obsession with architecture. He remains inordinately proud of his 58-storey skyscraper Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York. In fairness, its grandiose atrium , a polished fantasia of brass fittings and expensive pink marble , with an imposing waterfall, is a quintessential example of a certain 1980s aesthetic.

[5] To make way for Trump Tower, another building, on the same site, occupied by a high-end department store called Bonwit Teller, had to be demolished– not without controversy . After agreeing to donate two historic Art Deco friezes, which decorated that building’s exterior, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Trump balked at the cost of saving them, and reneged on his promise. “So,” as he put it in The Art of the Deal, “I ordered my guys to rip them down.”

[9] The reaction within the creative community to his election as president has been outrage: Meryl Streep’s heartfelt anti-Trump speech at the Golden Globe Awards ceremony earlier this year is perhaps the best-known example of this tendency. Trump, who has been accused of being thin-skinned , infamously responded to Streep’s speech on Twitter, calling her an “over-rated ” actress.

Trump ——zero understanding of the arts？

第一段
Trump is often characterised as a brash（傲慢的,轻率地） buffoonish（笨蛋） philistine（庸人）, with zero understanding of the arts. Surprisingly, though, his 1987 bestseller, The Art of the Deal, ghost-written by the journalist Tony Schwartz, recounts （详细叙述）several anecdotes（趣闻轶事） that suggest it would be misleading to say Trump is wholly uninterested in culture.

第二段
For instance, the third chapter contains the bizarre （离奇的）revelation（揭发，揭露） that, as an “aggressive kid” in second grade, Trump punched his music teacher and gave him a black eye （把某人眼眶打黑） – “because I didn’t think he knew anything about music”.

He dabbles at different format of arts

第三段
Later, we learn that Trump was “attracted to the glamour of the movies”, and even flirted with（一闪念） the idea of attending film school in California. Perhaps he assuaged（缓和，平息） his ambitions concerning Hollywood by making various cameo appearances （友情客串） in movies from Home Alone 2 to Zoolander.

第四段
Then, of course, there is his obsession （着魔，痴迷） with architecture. He remains inordinately （非常的）proud of his 58-storey skyscraper Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York. In fairness, its grandiose atrium, a polished （抛光的）fantasia of brass fittings and expensive pink marble, with an imposing（壮观的） waterfall, is a quintessential （典型的） example of a certain 1980s aesthetic.

第五段
The story of the construction of Trump Tower, though, should give pause for thought to anyone who feels blasé about his potential impact, as president, upon the arts. To make way for （为...让步）Trump Tower, another building, on the same site（在同一地点）, occupied by a high-end（高档的） department store called Bonwit Teller, had to be demolished（拆毁） – not without controversy（争议）. After agreeing to donate two historic Art Deco friezes, which decorated that building’s exterior （外表外面）, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Trump balked at （畏缩，回避）the cost of saving them, and reneged on （违背约定）his promise. “So,” as he put it （正如他所说）in The Art of the Deal, “I ordered my guys to rip them down.”

第六段
 Regarding Trump Tower, there is also the strange tale of the tycoon’s（企业巨头，大亨） interaction with Andy Warhol, as recorded by the American Pop artist in his diaries. Encouraged by Trump, who visited the Factory in 1981, Warhol worked on a series of portraits of Trump Tower, in black, silver and grey, which he hoped would hang in the skyscraper’s lobby.

第七段
Unfortunately, for Warhol, the viewing of the eight finished paintings did not go well. “Mr Trump was very upset that they weren’t colour-coordinated （颜色协调）,” Warhol wrote. Some of Warhol’s silkscreen paintings were even sprinkled with （用...点缀）diamond dust – which, you might think, would appeal to Trump’s ostentatious（外表华丽的） tastes. Yet Trump objected to the fact that they didn’t ‘match’ the pinks and oranges in the lobby, and the paintings, to Warhol’s irritation, remained unsold.

What do people think of him？

第八段
Admittedly, there are prominent （突出的，杰出的） Trump supporters associated with the arts, such as the movie star Clint Eastwood. In the main, though, the reaction within the creative community to his election as president has been outrage（过分，骇人听闻）: Meryl Streep’s heartfelt （由衷的，诚挚的）anti-Trump speech at the Golden Globe Awards ceremony earlier this year is perhaps the best-known example of this tendency. Trump, who has been accused of being thin-skinned（敏感的）, infamously responded to Streep’s speech on Twitter, calling her an “over-rated（名过其实）” actress.

第九段
So, it will not surprise you to learn that, while making Trump on Culture, we found artists queuing up to denounce the president and his policies, including the novelist （小说家）Paul Auster and his writer wife Siri Hustvedt. Both characterise Trump as a “pop-culture president”.

第十段
“I see Trump as a guy who grew up on the Playboy philosophy of life,” Auster said. “And by Playboy, I mean the magazine: it was a big force back in the ‘60s and ‘70s. All these obnoxious（讨厌的） remarks he’s made about women – really repulsive （令人厌恶的）things that he’s said – reflect the devil-may-care （漫不经心的）arrogance （傲慢，自大） of the Playboy man.”

第十一段
 When I asked Hustvedt, who attended January’s Women’s March on Washington, why so many artists and writers viscerally （发自肺腑的） dislike Trump, she replied: “You mean, aside from the fact that he’s a vulgar（庸俗的） brute （兽性）?”

第十二段
Someone who would agree with Auster is the New York-based artist Brian Whiteley, who gained notoriety （臭名昭著） last year for installing in Central Park a tombstone （墓碑）inscribed with Trump’s name, the year of his birth, and the slogan, ‘Make America Hate Again’ The gravestone（墓碑） received widespread press coverage .

第十三段
Yet not every US artist is anti-Trump. In Washington, I met Lucian Wintrich, the controversial （有争议的）White House correspondent for conservative（保守的） political blog The Gateway Pundit. Last year, Wintrich came to prominence when he unveiled （揭露）Twinks for Trump, his pro-Trump photography series featuring mostly shirtless（赤膊的） gay young men wearing Make America Great Again caps.

what about Trump’s actual policies concerning culture in America?

第十四段
What about Trump’s actual policies concerning culture in America? For supporters of the arts, this, perhaps, was the most tangible （实际的） cause for alarm. In his draft budget earlier this year, Trump proposed eradicating（完全根除） federal funding for the National Endowment for the Arts – even though the NEA’s budget was only $148 million (£114.8 million), or 0.004% of federal spending.

第十五段
While funding for the NEA has been threatened before, no US president, since its formation（形成） in 1965, has ever suggested axing（精简机构） the agency entirely. Ironically, the impressive building in Washington in which the NEA used to be located is now a Trump hotel.

第十六段
However, in a remarkable（卓越的） turnaround（转变）, following much brinksmanship（边缘政策） with Congress, the NEA has been awarded $2 million (£1.5 million) extra funding – although the threat of elimination （根除）still looms（迫在眉睫） on the horizon.

第十七段
In many ways, this ongoing saga （传奇）is a classically confusing and capricious （多变的，反复无常的）Trump move. To begin with, Trump wanted to get rid of the NEA. Then, he agreed to increase its funding (although, admittedly, not by much). Perhaps it’s still too early to know what the broader implications for arts and culture might be in the age of Trump.

第十八段
For what it’s worth, though, I remain unconvinced that the 45th President of the United States represents such a dark, existential （存在主义的）threat to time-honoured （由来已久的） artistic values, including freedom of expression.

第十九段
You could even argue that, having become a hate-figure （讨厌的对象） for many people on the left, associated with the arts, Trump seems, perversely（倔强的有悖常理的）, to be stimulating creativity – by offering something for them to oppose and rail against. Any civilised society must cherish artistic expression – and nowhere more so than in a country that prides itself on being the Land of the Free.