{"id":171689,"date":"2025-12-07T07:33:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T07:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/171689\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T07:33:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T07:33:07","slug":"trump-hosts-kennedy-center-honorees-and-teases-hosting-skills-im-sure-theyll-give-me-great-reviews-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/171689\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump hosts Kennedy Center honorees and teases hosting skills: \u2018I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll give me great reviews\u2019 | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump<\/a> on Saturday evening hosted the 2025 Kennedy Center honorees in the Oval Office for a medal-presentation ceremony, celebrating country music singer George Strait, actor-singer Michael Crawford, actor Sylvester \u201cSly\u201d Stallone and the members of the rock band Kiss.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a great evening, it\u2019s a great honor,\u201d Trump said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m delighted to welcome to the Oval Office \u2013 the world-famous, most famous office in the world, most powerful office in the world \u2013 our truly exceptional 2025 Kennedy Center honorees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump said the honorees \u201cinspired, uplifted and unified millions and millions of Americans\u201d, calling them \u201cthe most accomplished and renowned class of Kennedy Center honorees ever assembled\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell stood behind Trump as the president presented the medals. Grenell, who was appointed by Trump in February this year to head the center, is also a special envoy to Latin America for the administration.<\/p>\n

The medallions to the honorees were \u201cre-designed\u201d by Tiffany and Co, Trump said. \u201cThey have done a fantastic job, they\u2019re wonderful people \u2013 I know them very well because they\u2019re right next to Trump Tower, I\u2019ve lived with them many years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trump never visited the John F Kennedy<\/a> Center for the Performing Arts<\/a> in his first term, and did not take part in its annual awards program. But he\u2019s taken a keen interest in his second. Since taking office, the president has ousted the center\u2019s board of trustees and replacing them with supporters. He\u2019s promised to \u201cfully renovate\u201d the center\u2019s infrastructure, and make it a \u201ccrown jewel\u201d of arts and culture in the US.<\/p>\n

It was unclear how this year\u2019s honorees were chosen, but Trump said in August when presenting the list that he had been \u201cabout 98% involved\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Kennedy Center Honors program and its series of tribute performances for each recipient is set to be taped on Sunday, and will be broadcast later in December.<\/p>\n

The president said in August that he would host the show, and Trump on Saturday set expectations high: \u201cI believe \u2013 and I\u2019m going to make a prediction: this will be the highest-rated show that they\u2019ve ever done,\u201d Trump said about Sunday\u2019s event during the medal ceremony. \u201cAnd they\u2019ve gotten some pretty good ratings. But there\u2019s nothing like what\u2019s going to happen tomorrow night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Presidents traditionally attend the program, but none has ever presented the show, a fact Trump appeared aware of as well. \u201cWe never had a president hosting the awards before, this is a first. I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll give me great reviews, right?\u201d Trump quipped. \u201cNo, we\u2019ll do fine. I\u2019ve watched some of the people that host. Jimmy Kimmel was horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I can\u2019t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don\u2019t think I should be president,\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump on Saturday evening hosted the 2025 Kennedy Center honorees in the Oval Office for a medal-presentation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-171689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}