Donald Trump on Saturday awarded the 2025 Kennedy Center honorees with their medals during a ceremony in the Oval Office. He called comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s hosting “horrible”. Trump said that if he couldn’t outdo Kimmel in terms of talent, then he didn’t think he should be president.
“I’ve watched some of the people that host. Jimmy Kimmel was horrible. If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president,” AP quoted Trump as saying.
According to a report by Deadline, Trump also said, “We have never had a president hosting the awards before. This is the first. I’m sure they’ll give me great reviews, right? You know, they’ll say he was horrible. He was terrible. It was a horrible situation. No, we’ll do fine.”
This year’s honorees include actor Sylvester Stallone, singers Gloria Gaynor and George Strait, the rock band Kiss, and actor-singer Michael Crawford. During his first term, Trump ignored the Kennedy Center and its prestigious awards.
Since returning to office in January, however, he has implemented several changes, most notably removing the board of trustees and replacing them with Republican supporters who elected him as chairman. Trump has also slammed the center’s programming and appearance, pledging to revamp both. Each honoree received a new medal, designed, created, and donated by Tiffany & Co., according to the Kennedy Center and Trump.
He also praised the group of artists he helped select as “perhaps the most accomplished and renowned class” ever assembled.
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Strait, wearing a cowboy hat, was the first to get his medal. When he began to remove the hat, Trump said, “If you want to leave it on, you can. I think we can get it through.” Strait, however, took it off.
The president described Crawford as a “great star of Broadway” for his lead role in the long-running “Phantom of the Opera.” Speaking about Gaynor, he said, “We have the disco queen, and she was indeed, and nobody did it like Gloria Gaynor.”
Trump praised his friend Stallone, calling him a “wonderful” and “spectacular” person, “one of the true, great movie stars,” and “one of the great legends.”
Regarding Kiss, he said the group is an “incredible rock band”.
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Songs by honorees Gaynor and Kiss were played in the Rose Garden just outside the Oval Office while members of the White House press corps waited for Trump to start the ceremony.
In August, the president said he was “about 98% involved” in selecting the 2025 honorees when he personally announced them at the Kennedy Center, marking the first group chosen under his administration. Previously, the honorees had typically been announced via press release.
It was not clear how the selections were made, as prior to Trump, a bipartisan committee handled the choices.