The 5 Most Outrageous Things Donald Trump Said in Announcing the 2025 Kennedy Center Honorees
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In case you missed it, country icon George Strait, 1970s rock veterans KISS, Broadway star Michael Crawford, disco queen Gloria Gaynor and actor Sylvester Stallone are the 2025 Kennedy Center Honorees.
None of those selections was a shock, though Gaynor has a fairly slim resume to receive an honor of this magnitude – just two top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100.
The real shocker of the press conference came when Trump revealed that he will host this year's ceremony. It will mark the first time a president – sitting or not – has hosted the show. Most of the previous hosts have been performing artists, but there have been three exceptions. Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President Kennedy, hosted from 2003 to 2012 and opened the show in 2017 (when there was no formal host). Two renowned broadcast journalists have hosted – Eric Sevareid in 1979, followed by Walter Cronkite from 1981 to 2002.
In his first term, Trump never once attended the Kennedy Center Honors gala, making him the first President to never attend the event during a term in office.
This is the first class of honorees since Trump took over the Kennedy Center in February, firing trustees who had been appointed by President Biden and replacing them with his own picks.
Here are the five most outrageous things Trump said in announcing this year's Kennedy Center Honorees.
Trump said he had to be talked into taking the job as host.
'I've been asked to host. I said 'I'm the president of the United States. Are you fools asking me to do that?' [They said] 'Sir, you'll get much higher ratings.' I said 'I don't care. I'm president of the United States. I won't do it.' They said 'Please.' … I said, 'OK, I'll do it.' So, I have a great host [for the show]. Do you believe what I have to do? I didn't want to do it. They'll [his critics] say he insisted [on hosting]. I did not insist, but I think it will be quite successful, actually. It's been a long time. I used to host The Apprentice finales and we did rather well with that. So, I think we're going to do very well.'
Trump said he had long wanted to receive a Kennedy Center Honor.
[reading from prepared remarks]: 'Since 1978, the Kennedy Center Honors have been among the most prestigious awards in the performing arts.' [departing from the script]: 'I wanted one. I was never able to get one. [laughter from the audience.] It's true, actually. I would have taken it if they would have called me. I waited and waited and waited. I said 'To hell with it. I'll become chairman [of the Kennedy Center] and I'll give myself an honor. Next year, we'll honor Trump, OK?' [Note: That last line might have been a joke, but sometimes it's hard to tell.]
Trump said Sylvester Stallone is the second-biggest name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Three guesses who he puts first.
'Sly is a pillar of the American pop culture and a Hollywood superstar like few others. And one of the biggest names on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In fact, the only one that's a bigger name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame they say is a guy named Donald Trump. I'm on the Hollywood Walk of Fame too, if you can believe that one.'
Asked how involved he was in the selections, he replied, '98% involved.'
'I turned down plenty. They were too woke. I had a couple of 'wokesters.' No, we have great people. This is very different than it used to be. These are great people. Look at the Academy Awards. It gets lousy ratings. Now it's all woke. All they do is talk about how much they hate Trump, but nobody likes that. They don't watch anymore. That used to have 45 million people watching.
'Remember The Apprentice first season. The Apprentice had 42 million people. The Academy Awards had 41 million people. We were the second show to the Super Bowl, but since then the Academy Awards have gone down to – I think they've gone down to numbers that are like a regular show because it went woke. We're not doing it [rethinking the selections] for that reason. We're doing it because we want the great talent. I was very involved.'
Trump giveth and he taketh away.
Large photos of each of the honorees were displayed. When Trump saw the photo of George Strait, he said 'Oh, that looks nice. A good-looking guy.' But Trump felt compelled to add: 'I hope he still looks like that.'
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