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President Donald Trump hosted the 2025 Kennedy Center Awards on Sunday, Dec. 7
The president told press at the event that he looked to one late-night figure for hosting inspiration, then proceeded to drag his frequent foe Jimmy Kimmel
Jimmy Kimmel Live! was briefly suspended in the fall over remarks Kimmel made in a monologue about the late conservative activist and Trump supporter Charlie Kirk
President Donald Trump hosted the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors as the first president to do so in the history of the event.
Trump, 79, told press at the Sunday, Dec. 7, honors that he took inspiration from late-night stars of the past. When asked on the red carpet how he prepared to host, he told reporters, “Maybe I haven’t prepared. Maybe you want to be a little bit loose. If you look at the great hosts Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, those are the greats.”
He then added, “You look at the not so greats like Jimmy Kimmel, he was just terrible.”
While onstage at the Sunday event, Trump once again invoked the late Carson, telling the audience, “They say this is the first time that a president of the United States has ever hosted the Kennedy Center Honors … I don’t know why. I am going to try and act like Johnny Carson. I miss Johnny,” per Deadline.
His jab at Kimmel came just one day after he insulted the host, 58, while presenting the Kennedy Center honorees with their medals during a Saturday, Dec. 6, Oval Office ceremony.
“We have never had a president hosting the awards before. This is the first,” Trump told reporters at the event, according to Deadline. “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.”
Trump then said he “watched some of the people that host,” before saying, “Jimmy Kimmel was horrible, and some of these people.”
Paul Morigi/Getty
Donald Trump speaks at the Kennedy Center Honors Medallion Reception in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 6, 2025
He then added, “If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president.”
Kimmel has never hosted the Kennedy Center Honors. He previously appeared at the event in 2012, where he praised honoree David Letterman.
Trump has been lobbing insults at Kimmel — one of his more vocal critics — for months now. Their ongoing feud escalated when Jimmy Kimmel Live! was suspended for nearly a week in September as a result of remarks Kimmel made in a monologue shortly after Charlie Kirk‘s death.
Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty
Donald Trump speaks during the Kennedy Center Honors medal presentation ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 6, 2025
Sunday night’s honorees included Sylvester Stallone, George Strait, KISS, Gloria Gaynor and Michael Crawford. Trump said in August that he was “about 98 percent involved” in selecting the honorees after appointing himself chairman of the Kennedy Center in February.
The Kennedy Center Honors, held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., is an annual event honoring artists for their significant impacts on American culture through music, dance, theater, opera, film or television.
Trump revamped the Kennedy Center shortly after he returned to office for a second term earlier this year. In February, just weeks after his second inauguration, the president got rid of 18 members of the Kennedy Center’s board and replaced them with his allies, NPR reported at the time.
Trump was then elected chairman by the new board — which includes Vice President JD Vance‘s wife Usha Vance and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles — on Feb. 12.
Days before the vote, Trump said he wanted to be selected chairman of the Kennedy Center “to make sure it runs properly,” adding, “We don’t need woke at the Kennedy Center, and we don’t need — some of the shows were terrible. They were a disgrace that they were even put on.”
Trump said “no” when asked by a reporter if he’d previously attended a show at the Kennedy Center.
In June, he and first lady Melania Trump attended their first Kennedy Center show, catching the opening night of Les Misérables. They were met with boos by the crowd.
Two months later in August, the president revealed this year’s group of honorees. He said at the time, “They all went through me. I turned down plenty who were too woke.”
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Republicans proposed a bill in late July titled the “Make Entertainment Great Again Act,” which would name the Kennedy Center the Donald J. Trump Center for Performing Arts.
In response, President John F. Kennedy‘s only grandson, Jack Schlossberg, argued on social media that the move goes against federal law.
“The Trump Administration stands for freedom of oppression, not expression. He uses his awesome powers to suppress free expression and instill fear. But this isn’t about the arts,” he wrote. “Trump is obsessed with being bigger than JFK , with minimizing the many heroes of our past, as if that elevates him. It doesn’t. But there’s hope — art lasts forever, and no one can change what JFK and our shared history stands for.”
Republicans also proposed changing the name of the Kennedy Center Opera House to the First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.
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