Delta and Bank of America have both pulled funding from New York’s Public Theater over a Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar that depicts Caesar as Donald Trump and his wife Calpurnia as Melania. Of course, the problem being — as anyone familiar with Shakespeare’s 16th century tragedy can tell you — is that the play ends with the Caesar’s brutal assassination. The scene in question can be described as Caesar-Trump being “stabbed to death by women and minorities on stage,” if the parallel wasn’t clear enough already.
For what it’s worth, the Public Theater did issue a warning on the theater’s website for the production, with a note from the theater’s artistic director Oskar Eustis reading: “Julius Caesar can be read as a warning parable to those who try to fight for democracy by undemocratic means. To fight the tyrant does not mean imitating him.”
However on Sunday, shortly after Delta pulled its support, Bank of America released the following statement on Twitter:
Bank of America supports arts programs worldwide, including an 11-year partnership with The Public Theater and Shakespeare in the Park. The Public Theater chose to present Julius Caesar in a way that was intended to provoke and offend. Had this intention been made known to us, we would have decided not to sponsor it. We are withdrawing our funding from this production.
The president’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr. also expressed his outrage over the scene, retweeting a Fox News article about the production:
I wonder how much of this "art" is funded by taxpayers? Serious question, when does "art" become political speech & does that change things? https://t.co/JfOmLLBJCn
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 11, 2017
Many people are not buying the outrage over the production though, taking to Twitter to point out some of the more obvious hypocrisies:
Presidents portrayed as Julius Caesar in U.S. productions: Lincoln, Reagan, Clinton, GWB, Obama, Trump. (Caesar died in all of them.)
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) June 12, 2017
There was a reasonably well regarded Julius Caesar in 2012 featuring an Obama figure killed by Cantor and McConnell, and no one made a fuss. pic.twitter.com/804Yhy0neG
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) June 12, 2017
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/874067995005505540
https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/873981130348920832
lol the "Julius Caesar" comparisons are bad because there's no way this Senate is gonna turn on Donald Trump heyooo
— Matt Pearce 🦅🇺🇸 (@mattdpearce) June 12, 2017
From @nytimes review of Julius Caesar, which I urge people to read in full to grasp the context of Caesar-as-Trump. https://t.co/WTF4kFFYuf pic.twitter.com/fVNZVAfvzW
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) June 12, 2017
https://twitter.com/alissamarie/status/873988930315616257
Others took umbrage with Bank of America and Delta, specifically:
I'm starting to get the feeling @BankofAmerica is a craven profit machine without much of a progressive, arts-advocating esprit de corps.
— Bess Kalb (@bessbell) June 12, 2017
Remember when @Delta & @BankofAmerica objected to Designated Survivor because the President & most of Cabinet were killed? Me neither. https://t.co/h3c3WxQWBp
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) June 12, 2017
Remember when @Delta & @BankofAmerica objected to Independence Day because the White House got blown up? Me neither. https://t.co/GWWPpdQthv
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) June 12, 2017
You issued $640 billion in mortgage-backed securities before the 2008 financial crisis. https://t.co/yXxiL4qQ3F
— Alana Massey (@AlanaMassey) June 12, 2017
https://twitter.com/JackSmithIV/status/874110481010757632
(Via NY Daily News)