Trump takes spotlight as Kennedy Center Honors recognizes artists | Donald Trump

President Donald Trump cemented his takeover of Washington’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday by hosting his flagship awards program — a presidential first — mixing politics with a celebration of music and film stars.

This year’s Kennedy Center Honors, widely considered America’s highest recognition for lifetime achievement in the performing arts, celebrated actor Sylvester Stallone, disco singer Gloria Gaynor, country musician George Strait, Phantom of the Opera star Michael Crawford and rock band Kiss.

Trump, who helped select the recipients, did not attend Kennedy Center events during his first term. But he took a keen interest in the institution in his second term, firing its president, installing a new board of directors that named him president and ordering a renovation of the building.

He told reporters upon arriving for the show that the Kennedy Center was “going to come back to life.”

“We are saving the Kennedy Center,” Trump said, accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump.

The former real estate developer is putting his stamp on the White House and Kennedy Center structures, controversially demolishing the White House’s East Wing to make way for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom. New Kennedy Center President Ric Grenell, who served as Trump’s ambassador to Germany, is overseeing the multimillion-dollar renovation of the performing arts complex and the revamping of the organization’s events, including hosting the World Cup final draw on Friday.

Grenell’s tenure was marked by staff turnover and dissatisfaction within the arts community with the center’s direction.

In the Oval Office on Saturday, Trump congratulated this year’s honorees and presented them with new gold medallions with blue ribbons, rather than the rainbow ribbons used since 1978 to represent the spectrum of the performing arts.

“These are some of the greatest artists, actors and performers of their generation,” Trump said. “We can hardly imagine the phenomenon of country music without its King of Country, or American disco without its first lady, or Broadway without its ghost…or Rock and Roll without its hottest band in the world, and that is what they are, or Hollywood without one of its greatest visionaries.”

During Trump’s first term, several honorees have openly criticized the president. In 2017, Trump’s first year in office, laureate and film producer Norman Lear threatened to boycott his own ceremony if Trump attended. Trump has remained on the sidelines this entire term.

Trump said he was deeply involved in choosing the 2025 honorees and declined some recommendations because they were “too woke.” Although Stallone is one of Trump’s “special ambassadors” to Hollywood and has compared Trump to George Washington, the political views of Sunday’s other guests are less clear.

Kiss members Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss rose to fame in the 1970s with hits such as I Was Made for Lovin’ You and Rock and Roll All Nite. Country star Strait’s hits include the song Down and Out. Gaynor is known for her disco hit I Will Survive. English stage actor Crawford originated the lead role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical The Phantom of the Opera, and film star Stallone rose to prominence with films such as Rocky and Rambo.

Strait and Gaynor have said little about their politics, even though Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show that Gaynor has donated money to Republican organizations in recent years.

Simmons spoke favorably of Trump when Trump ran for president in 2016. But in 2022, Simmons told Spin magazine that Trump was “for himself” and criticized Trump for encouraging conspiracy theories and public expressions of racism.

Kiss member Stanley denounced Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, and said Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 were “terrorists.” But after Trump’s 2024 victory, Stanley called for unity.

“If your candidate lost, it’s time to learn from it, accept it, and try to understand why,” Stanley wrote on

The Kennedy Center Honors broadcast will air on CBS on December 23.