Scientology’s ‘wealthiest’ donor: Trump Kennedy Center appointee is longtime ally of controversial sect
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On Thursday, February 13, President Donald Trump announced some appointees to the John F. Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees.
Most of them aren’t controversial. Trump named veteran GOP consultant Susie Wiles, who is now White House chief of staff in his administration, along with Usha Vance (Vice President JD Vance’s wife). But one name that is raising some eyebrows, according to journalist Tony Ortega, is billionaire Trish Duggan.
In a SubStack article published on Valentine’s Day 2025, Ortega notes that Duggan is the “wealthiest” donor to the Church of Scientology.
Ortega wrote his SubStack piece for The Underground Bunker, which has been reporting on Scientology since 2012.
“We were just telling you on Tuesday about Trish being a director of the America First Policy Institute, a dark-money organization that Politico and the New York Times said had quietly become more important than the Heritage Foundation for helping to plan the strategy of the second Trump Administration,” Ortega explains. “The AFPI’s tax records suggested that Duggan is tight with three of Trump’s cabinet picks: Linda McMahon at Education, Brooke Rollins at Agriculture, and Pam Bondi at Justice. And her selection to the Kennedy Board only emphasizes just how close she is with the president after becoming, at $5 million, one of the biggest individual funders to his 2024 campaign.”
Ortega notes some well-known jazz musicians who are involved with Scientology.
“Trish has a museum dedicated to herself in St. Petersburg, Florida, which shows off her glass art,” Ortega reports. “And now that she’s on the Kennedy Board, she no doubt will have some great suggestions for the legendary performing arts center in Washington D.C. Here are some Scientologist performers who might show up on the schedule: Mark Isham, trumpet, and Stanley Clarke, bass, are legitimately celebrated jazz musicians who happen to be longtime Scientologists, and who have both seemed to step up their involvement in church events in recent years.”
Ortega adds, “Stanley’s already scheduled to play at the Kennedy Center this May, and Mark’s film music has been performed there in the past.”
During the 1970s, Philadelphia native Clarke was a member of the late pianist/keyboardist Chick Corea’s iconic jazz-fusion band Return to Forever. Corea was also a well-known Scientologist and often dedicated his albums to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
Content retrieved from: https://www.alternet.org/duggan-trump-scientology-kennedy-center/.
