President Donald Trump joked on Sunday about renaming the Kennedy Center he’s revamping as he graced the performing arts venue’s annual awards night in Washington, D.C.
“This place is hot,” the president said during his remarks at the 48th annual Kennedy Center Honors, praising the building’s latest makeover, done to his own specifications. “The Trump-Kennedy Center. I mean, the Kennedy Center. I’m sorry. It’s so embarrassing.”
The president honored veteran Hollywood action star Sylvester Stallone, Kiss frontman Gene Simmons, disco icon Gloria Gaynor, country singer George Strait, and Michael Crawford, who played the Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s film. Phantom of the OperaTrump favorite.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump on the red carpet at the 48th annual Kennedy Center Honors Sunday evening (AP).
Among those attending the event were Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Attorney General Pam Bondi, making up a strong conservative contingent in the audience.
The event will air on CBS on December 23 and was preceded by a medal ceremony at the White House and a black-tie State Department dinner for the honorees on Saturday night.
Taking questions from reporters on the red carpet before Sunday’s bash, Trump, flanked by his wife Melania Trump, was asked directly: “Will you change the name of the Kennedy Center to the Trump Center?”
“It’s not in my hands,” he replied. “We have a board. The first lady is the honorary president.”
Trump presents Sylvester Stallone with his medal in the Oval Office of the White House on Saturday (Getty)
Melania is actually one of the organization’s five honorary presidents, the other four being her four predecessors as first lady, while the president has installed himself as chairman of its board of trustees and replaced a core slate of Democrat-appointed trustees with a selection of aides.
Trump did so in February in the interest of stripping the Kennedy Center of its perceived liberal leanings as part of a culture war against “liberal” values, claiming the institution’s previous programming was largely a drag show and “anti-American propaganda” and that it promoted divisive left-wing political ideology.
After putting his own stamp on its output, the president attended the opening night of a new production of the Broadway musical. Les Misérables In June he was jeered and cheered as the gala was taken over by drag queens and boycotted by some of its performers.
The choice of honorees at Sunday’s awards was equally reflective of his personal taste. Trump acknowledged in August that he was “98 percent involved” in choosing the lineup, according to CNN, a determination made by a casting committee based, typically, on board recommendations and public requests.
Trump’s Kennedy Center honorees pose with their medals at the White House on Saturday (AP)
Welcoming Stallone, Simmons, Gaynor, Strait and Crawford from the stage, the president said: “Tonight, we’re seeing pure talent on full display. There’s nothing more inspiring, no one has done it better than the people you’re watching and honoring tonight, and maybe no one ever will.”
“It’s fantastic, isn’t it?” Trump continued. “It’s just unbelievable. It’s the biggest evening in the history of the Kennedy Center, not even the competition. Our country is back – they tried to get it. [Joe] Biden will do this job for four consecutive years. I watched.”
His comments, and the political allegiances of most in attendance, ran counter to a promise made by Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell at Saturday’s State Department banquet, in which he declared that the venue “needs to be a place of bipartisanship.”
“This needs to be a place that we come together and we celebrate together, and we don’t care who you voted for president,” Grenell said.
