After the backlash against his comments about the Charlottesville riots, US president Donald Trump this week closed down two of his CEO-packed advisory bodies—the manufacturing council and “strategic and policy forum”— and scrapped plans for a third, dealing with infrastructure. And now the members of a fourth body, the committee on the arts and the humanities, have resigned in unison.
The council, whose honorary chair is first lady Melania Trump, comprises personalities and intellectuals including actor Kal Penn, author Jhumpa Lahiri, artist Chuck Close, and journalist Richard Cohen. They announced their resignation through a strongly worded letter condemning the White House’s handling of white supremacy: “We cannot sit idly by, the way that your West Wing advisors have, without speaking out against your words and actions,” it reads.
But that wasn’t the final indignity. The letter also contains a hidden message. The first letter of each paragraph is part of an acrostic of the word “resist.”
Reproach
Elevating
Speaking
Ignoring
Supremacy
Thank
Evidently, they aren’t the arts council for nothing.