WASHINGTON (AP) — As the new chairman of the Kennedy Center, President Donald Trump added a highly personal stamp to this year's announcement of the recipients of the annual honors, whom he named as country music star George Strait, “Rocky” actor Sylvester Stallone, singer Gloria Gaynor, the rock band Kiss and actor-singer Michael Crawford.
Instead of the Kennedy Center revealing the names through a press release as usual, Trump announced the honorees himself during a Wednesday press conference at the site, where he was flanked by American flags and photo stands for each of the entertainers that were initially covered by red drapes. Unlike in his first term, when he didn't even attend the honors ceremony, he announced that he would be hosting it later this year and that he had been deeply involved with the selection process. He also suggested he might choose himself for a future award.
The spectacle marked a new era for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which Trump has taken over by installing himself as chair and replacing the board of trustees with loyalists. He has even hinted he’d like to see the venue renamed the Trump/Kennedy Center.
Trump has made revamping the Kennedy Center — and what he calls its “woke” agenda — the center of an ongoing push to overhaul such cultural institutions as the National Endowment of the Humanities and the Smithsonian museums.
A bipartisan history
The Kennedy Center Honors were established in 1978 and have been given to a broad range of artists. Until Trump’s first term, presidents of both major political parties traditionally attended the annual ceremony, even when they disagreed politically with a given recipient.
Prominent liberals such as Barbra Streisand and Warren Beatty were honored during the administration of Republican George W. Bush, and a leading conservative, Charlton Heston, was feted during the administration of Democrat Bill Clinton.
At least some of this year's winners have a history of backing Trump. Stallone is a prominent supporter who has called Trump “the second George Washington” and was named by the president, along with Jon Voight and Mel Gibson, as a Hollywood special ambassador. Founding Kiss member Ace Frehley endorsed Trump in 2020, calling him “the strongest leader we've got.” Meanwhile, fellow Kiss musician Paul Stanley has often criticized the Republican president, notably his resistance to accepting his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.
“After numerous audits, debunked claims of rampant voter tampering, dead people voting & the countless cases thrown out by Trump appointed judges & others … When is not getting the hoped for result accepted?? Biden won," Stanley tweeted at the time.
The Kennedy Center informs honorees in advance, and all four original Kiss performers, who also include Gene Simmons and Peter Criss, issued statements through a band publicist.
“The prestige of the Kennedy Center Honors cannot be overstated and I accept this on behalf of the long legacy of Kiss and all of the band members who helped create our iconic band,” Stanley said.
Kiss and the other nominees have had substantial, even iconic, careers. Stallone's portrayals of the underdog boxer Rocky Balboa and Vietnam veteran John J. Rambo are fixtures in popular culture. Strait's dozens of chart-topping hits, including “Check Yes or No” and “I Cross My Heart,” have led to his nickname the King of Country Music. Few bands have sold more records or more famously covered their faces in makeup than Kiss, members of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Crawford is a celebrated stage actor who won a Tony for his starring role in “The Phantom of the Opera,” and Gaynor is a leading star from the 1970s disco era whose “I Will Survive” is a feminist anthem.
Breaking with longtime tradition, none of the honorees was from the fields of dance, jazz or classical music.
This year's Kennedy Center Honors ceremony will take place on Dec. 7 and will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+.
A personal approach
Historically, a bipartisan advisory committee selects the recipients, who over the years have ranged from George Balanchine and Tom Hanks to Aretha Franklin and Stephen Sondheim. Trump said Wednesday that he was “about 98% involved” in choosing the honorees and conferred with such handpicked Kennedy Center officials as Ric Grenell and Sergio Gor. He said he “turned down plenty” of names, saying those individuals were “too woke” or too liberal. He described the artists he announced Wednesday as “great people" and quipped upon unveiling an image of the 73-year-old Strait: "Good looking guy. I hope he still looks that way.”
Besides naming himself chairman and remaking the board, Trump has indicated he'd take over decisions regarding programming at the center and vowed to end events featuring performers in drag. In choosing himself as the host of December's gathering, he takes on a role once filled by Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, the center's namesake.
The steps have drawn further criticism from some artists. In March, the producers of “Hamilton” pulled out of staging the Broadway hit musical in 2026, citing Trump's aggressive takeover of the institution's leadership.
House Republicans added an amendment to a spending bill Trump signed into law in July to rename the Kennedy Center’s Opera House after first lady Melania Trump, but that venue has yet to be renamed. Maria Shriver, a niece of JFK and a longtime Democrat, has criticized as “insane” a separate House proposal to rename the entire center after Trump.
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Italie reported from New York. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
Annie Ma And Hillel Italie, The Associated Press
