President Donald Trump announced the next batch of Kennedy Center honorees in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, months after overhauling the center and taking over as chairman.
The president bestowed Kennedy Center Honors on country singer and songwriter George Strait, “Rocky” actor Sylvester Stallone, “I Will Survive” disco singer Gloria Gaynor, English stage actor Michael Crawford, and the New York City rock band KISS, which includes founding members Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss.
“The 48th Kennedy Center honorees are outstanding people, an outstanding group — incredible,” Trump said. “We can’t wait to celebrate the Kennedy Center Honors.”
Before revealing the 2025 honors, the president announced that he agreed to host the 48th annual Honors award ceremony, which will air live on CBS in December, though he said he was reluctant to do it.
“I didn’t want to do it. OK?” Trump said about hosting the award ceremony. He added, “They’re going to say he insisted. I did not insist. But I think it will be quite successful.”
Trump was appointed as interim chairman of the board of the Kennedy Center in February, after Deborah F. Rutter, the former president of the center, was fired from the position. At the time, the president called taking over the position a “great honor.”
Melania Trump, Jill Biden, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton serve alongside the president as honorary co-chairs.
This year’s honorees are the first group selected since the president took over as chairman. Kennedy Center Honors recognizes and celebrates artists, particularly performing artists, whose work has made a lasting impact on American culture.
Last year’s honorees included filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, American rock band The Grateful Dead, singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt, jazz composer Arturo Sandoval and the Apollo Theater.
Trump took a moment during the press conference Wednesday to unveil plans of improvement for the Kennedy Center — such as providing additional maintenance to the building — and credited himself with saving the arts institution from “decline” and putting a stop to “woke political programming” while serving as chairman.
“With a little fix-up and a little work, we can make it unbelievable,” the president said of the Kennedy Center. “The bones are so good.”
In addition to his work on the Kennedy Center, Trump said he has plans to revamp the White House, starting with the grass, which the president claims to know a lot about because he “owned a lot of golf courses.”
He also said he wants to “fix up” Washington, D.C., adding, “I’m determined to make Washington safe, clean and beautiful again.”