In 1997, Kate Shindle first spoke at the National Press Club as a tiara-wearing Miss America. Twenty years later, she was back — this time, as a Broadway actress and president of the Actors Equity union, calling out the cuts to the arts included in President Trump’s budget.

On Thursday morning, Shindle employed a line of argument tailored to the current political climate and to the budget-slashing president in the White House: The arts, she said, are an economic engine, offering jobs not just for actors and directors, but for ushers, ticket-takers and the like — and arts in turn fuel other businesses, such as hotels and bars, helping revitalize communities from Pittsburgh to Durham, N.C.

Shindle brought up Trump’s own approach, outlined in his book, “The Art of the Deal.”

“Mr. President … when deals crossed your desk, the guaranteed matching funds for every dollar you invested, you signed them,” she said, noting that each dollar in grants from the National Endowment for the Arts is typically matched by $8 in funding from public and private sources.

‍