These companies came to bury Julius Caesar, not praise it.
Amid backlash, Delta and Bank of America on Sunday pulled their corporate sponsorships of the Public Theater’s latest Shakespeare in the Park entry, which depicts Caesar as Donald Trump. As RealClearLife previously reported, the play features a graphic assassination scene, and has incited controversy well beyond the walls of the Delacorte Theater in New York’s Central Park.
“No matter what your political stance may be, the graphic staging of Julius Caesar at this summer’s Free Shakespeare in the Park does not reflect Delta Air Lines’ values,” a Delta spokesman said in a statement.
“Their artistic and creative direction crossed the line on the standards of good taste. We have notified them of our decision to end our sponsorship as the official airline of The Public Theater effective immediately.”
It’s a huge loss for the Theater. Delta alone donates between $100,000 and $499,000 a year, according to Deadline.com.
But with the play officially opening this weekend, supporters of the president were flooding social media with their outrage. And no one was more offended by the questionable spectacle than the subject of the political statement—president Trump’s own family.
“When does ‘art’ become political speech & does that change things?” Donald Trump Jr. tweeted Sunday.
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