Trump names Stallone and Kiss for Kennedy Center Honors and says he'll host the awards show
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.
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+.
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.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's Beef with Bank of America's Corporate Governance Goes Beyond His Personal Accounts: Exclusive
By Josh Kosman Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan may be a marked man in the White House and not just because his bank would not take President Trump's money, sources said. Trump on August 7 signed an executive order mandating banking regulators to investigate whether banks have discriminated against conservatives and certain industries. President Trump is targeting Brian Moynihan The President said August 5 on CNBC's Squawk Box that BofA and JPMorgan would not accept his deposits after his first term in office. But there may be more to the story. Trump sung the same tune Jan. 23 with Moynihan right next to him on a World Economic Forum stage. 'I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives, because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank, and that included a place called Bank of America,' the President said. 'I hope you're going to open your banks to conservatives, because what you're doing is wrong.' He was likely referring to when BofA stopped banking private prison company GEO Group, BofA insiders said. Photo by Ye Jinghan on Unsplash 'This is what Trump was pissed about,' a BofA source said. 'Trump needs GEO.' BofA in June 2019 was the last of the big banks to cut off future funding for private prison companies including GEO. 'They did not want to be the last bank standing,' a source with direct knowledge of the situation said. GEO now processes more than one-third of the people ICE detains, 20,000 beds, at 21 facilities, according to GEO. The firm also owns prisons and jails. But back in 2019 there was a big fight within the bank whether to stop doing more business with GEO after one of GEO's other big lenders JPMorgan in March 2019 said it would no longer fund private prisons. A GEO facility according to the company's website Wells Fargo was also pulling back. BofA Vice Chair Anne Finucane argued for staying the course and was very vocal about it, a source said, causing some at the bank to panic, the source said. There were meetings between top bank executives where what to do about lending to private prisons was fiercely debated. Ultimately, BofA's Global Head of ESG Andrew Plepler had the final word and BoA stopped future funding of private prisons, the BofA source said. 'The private sector is attempting to respond to public policy and government needs and demands in the absence of long standing and widely recognized reforms needed in criminal justice and immigration policies,' BofA said in a June 2019 statement to USA Today. 'Lacking further legal and policy clarity, and in recognition of the concerns of our employees and stakeholders in the communities we serve, it is our intention to exit these relationships.' Attorney General Pam Bondi used to work for lobbying firm Ballard Partners. GEO Group Chair George Zoley on June 26, 2019 commented publicly on BofA's decision to no longer extend financing to correctional and rehabilitation services providers. He said he expected there would be no impact on its $900 million revolving line of credit that did not mature until May 17, 2024. 'For over thirty years, we have provided high-quality services to the federal government under both Democrat and Republican administrations. To be clear, The GEO Group has never managed any facilities that house unaccompanied minors, nor have we ever managed border patrol holding facilities,' Zoley said at the time. GEO in 2020 sold shares of its common stock to raise money. ICE arrests a man from Guatemala, according to ICE website President Biden on January 26, 2021 issued an executive order to not renew contracts with for-profit prisons though it made an exception for immigration detention facilities. GEO Group's shares fell to below $6 a share. Under President Trump, with the ban lifted, the price roared to over $36 though it has now fallen to just over $21. Bank of America in Dec. 2023 changed its outright ban on banking private prison companies to a case-by-case assessment. CoreCivic, a GEO rival, now has a BofA deposit account, Semafor reported in June. People in today's Trump White House are likely fully aware of what transpired. Attorney General Pam Bondi was reportedly a GEO lobbyist, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick's Cantor Fitzgerald during Biden's term helped GEO sell its shares, sources said and public filings show. Omeed Malik Former BofA Exec Omeed Malik was pushed out in 2018 for personal conduct in violation of firm standards before the GEO ban, and he too is close to the White House. Malik in 2018 filed a $100 million claim against BofA with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and reportedly settled later that year for more than $10 million. In 2022 he formed 1789 Capital to invest in anti-woke companies adding his very close friend Donald Trump Jr. as a partner. CorpGov does not know if Malik has said anything critical about BofA to The White House. Bank of America and Malik spokespeople declined comment. The White House, GEO Group, Anne Finucane and Andrew Plepler (neither of which is still at BofA) did not return calls. Read more from Josh Kosman at Contact: joshpkosman@ Never Miss our Weekly Highlights Click to follow us on LinkedIn The post Trump's Beef with Bank of America's Corporate Governance Goes Beyond His Personal Accounts: Exclusive appeared first on CorpGov. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
USA Today
10 minutes ago
- USA Today
I asked Truth Social AI to fact-check Trump
This newsletter, Translating Politics, was created to help readers sift through Donald Trump's always chaotic and often deceitful rhetoric during his second term as president. Today, we have a little high-tech help for that task, thanks to a new AI chatbot that started operating last week on Trump's social media platform, Truth Social. I used this tool, known as Truth Social AI, to fact-check posts Trump made this week on Truth Social. But first, let's ask our chatbot assistant if Trump has a history of lying. 'Yes,' Truth Social AI responded, 'Multiple major fact-checking organizations and news outlets have documented a sustained pattern of false or misleading public statements by Donald Trump over many years, including during campaigns, his presidency, and post-presidency.' Now let's turn to Trump's claims on Truth Social, where he posted on Aug. 11 that 'Tariffs are making our country strong and rich!!!' Truth Social AI didn't agree, telling me 'Broad tariffs do not make a country 'strong and rich' in the aggregate; they redistribute costs and benefits—raising revenue and protecting some industries while increasing prices, reducing real wages, and risking slower growth over time, according to economic analyses and recent data on the new U.S. tariffs.' Trump on Aug. 11 posted that he was 'nominating highly respected economist, Dr. E.J. Antoni, as the next commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.' Antoni would replace the last BLS commissioner, who Trump fired on Aug. 1 for issuing an accurate report on job growth. Truth Social AI isn't as impressed with Antoni as Trump, calling him 'a partisan policy economist known for media commentary and work at the Heritage Foundation, but he is not widely recognized in academia as a highly cited or field‑leading economist.' Trump also posted on Aug. 11 that 'the murder rate in Washington today is higher than that of Bogotá, Colombia,' while trying to justify his absurd mobilization of the National Guard to patrol in our nation's capital. Truth Social is working with Perplexity, an AI search engine, which has said Trump's website is a customer and has control over issues like which information sources get cited. Truth Social AI told me, based on available data, that Washington's murder rate would be lower than Bogotá's, not higher. The chatbot also knocked down Trump's false claim that crime is on the rise in Washington, noting that 'the Metropolitan Police Department is reporting a roughly 26% decrease in violent crime so far in 2025.' So for now, you can get accurate information from Truth Social, but not the website's largest stockholder. Read more from me and my colleagues:
The Hill
10 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump eases commercial rocket launch regulations, benefiting Musk
President Trump signed an executive order Wednesday easing regulations for commercial rocket launches and spaceport development, in a move likely to boost Elon Musk's SpaceX. The order calls for eliminating or expediting environmental reviews for rocket launches and exempting launch vehicles from or rescinding licensing regulations. It also seeks to evaluate state and local restrictions on spaceport development, in addition to expediting environmental and administrative reviews for building the infrastructure for launches. 'Ensuring that United States operators can efficiently launch, conduct missions in space, and reenter United States airspace is critical to economic growth, national security, and accomplishing Federal space objectives,' Trump's order reads. It aims to 'substantially' increase commercial space launches and 'novel space activities' by the end of the decade. Environmental advocates were immediately wary of the move. The Center for Biological Diversity slammed the order as 'reckless,' arguing it puts people and wildlife at risk from rockets that often explode and 'wreak devastation on surrounding areas.' 'Bending the knee to powerful corporations by allowing federal agencies to ignore bedrock environmental laws is incredibly dangerous and puts all of us in harm's way,' Jared Margolis, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. 'This is clearly not in the public interest.' The order will likely be a boon to Musk's SpaceX, one of the biggest players in the commercial space industry. The spacecraft and satellite communications firm has conducted more than 100 launches so far this year. It comes at a time when Trump and Musk's relationship remains tense, after the SpaceX and Tesla CEO left the White House earlier this year. After pouring at least $250 million into supporting Trump's 2024 campaign, Musk joined the administration as the head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The highly controversial cost-cutting effort weighed heavily on Musk and his companies' reputations, prompting the tech mogul to step away from his government work in May. However, shortly after, he and Trump began publicly feuding over the president's 'big, beautiful bill,' a dispute that devolved into personal attacks and prompted Musk to announce he was launching a third party.
