President Trump Hosts Kennedy Center Honors, Praises 2025 Honorees
President Trump on Sunday was set to host the Kennedy Center Honors after presenting the 2025 Kennedy Center honorees with their medals during a ceremony in the Oval Office on Saturday, hailing the slate of artists he was deeply involved in choosing as “perhaps the most accomplished and renowned class” ever assembled.
This year’s recipients are actor Sylvester Stallone, singers Gloria Gaynor and George Strait, the rock band Kiss and actor-singer Michael Crawford. Mr. Trump said Saturday they are a group of “incredible people” who represent the “very best in American arts and culture” and that, “I know most of them and I’ve been a fan of all of them.”
A New Era for the Kennedy Center Honors
Sunday marks the first time a president will command the stage for the ceremony instead of sitting in an Opera House box. Asked when he arrived how he had found time to prepare, Mr. Trump said he “didn’t really prepare very much.” “If you look at the great hosts, Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, those are the greats,” Mr. Trump said, while disparaging previous host Jimmy Kimmel, whom the president has criticized on multiple occasions, going so far as to urge ABC to remove him as host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Mr. Trump is assuming a role that has been held in the past by journalist Walter Cronkite and comedian Stephen Colbert, among others. Before Mr. Trump, presidents watched the show alongside the honorees. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, one of several Cabinet secretaries attending the ceremony, said he’s looking forward to Mr. Trump’s hosting job. “Oh, this president, he is so relaxed in front of these cameras, as you know, and so funny, I can’t wait for tonight,” Lutnick said as he arrived with his wife, who is on the Kennedy Center board.
A Legacy of Honoring American Arts and Culture
Since 1978, the honors have recognized stars for their influence on American culture and the arts. Members of this year’s class are pop-culture standouts, including Stallone for his “Rocky” and “Rambo” movies, Gaynor for her feminist anthem “I Will Survive” and Kiss for its flashy, cartoonish makeup and onstage displays of smoke and pyrotechnics. Country music superstar George Strait and Tony Award-winning actor Michael Crawford are also being honored.
The ceremony is expected to be emotional for the members of Kiss. The band’s original lead guitarist, Ace Frehley, died in October after he was injured during a fall. The band’s co-founder Gene Simmons, speaking on the red carpet when he and the other honorees arrived for the ceremony, said the president had assured him there would be an empty chair among the members of Kiss in memory of Frehley.
Stallone said being honored at the ceremony was like being in the “eye of a hurricane.” “This is an amazing event,” he said. “But you’re caught up in the middle of it. It’s hard to take it in until the next day…. but I’m incredibly humbled by it.” Crawford also said it was “humbling, especially at the end of a career.” Gaynor said it “feels like a dream” to be honored. “To be recognized in this way is the pinnacle,” she said on the red carpet.
Mike Farris, an award-winning gospel singer who is performing for Gaynor, said she is a dear friend. “She truly did survive,” Farris said. “What an iconic song.” Actor Neil McDonough said he’s presenting the award to Stallone, which he said was long over due for Stallone’s writing and acting. “But that isn’t even the best part,” McDonough said. “The best part is that Sly is one of he greatest guys I’ve ever met.”
Previous honorees have come from a broad range of art forms, whether dance (Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham), theater (Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber), movies (Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks) or music (Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell). Mr. Trump upended decades of bipartisan support for the center by ousting its leadership and stacking the board of trustees with Republican supporters, who then elected him chair.
For more information on the Kennedy Center Honors and this year’s recipients, visit Here
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