Trump names Stallone and Kiss for Kennedy Center Honors and says he'll
host the awards show
[August 14, 2025]
By ANNIE MA and HILLEL ITALIE
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the new chairman of the Kennedy Center, President
Donald Trump added a highly personal stamp to this year's announcement
of the recipients of the annual honors, whom he named as country music
star George Strait, “Rocky” actor Sylvester Stallone, singer Gloria
Gaynor, the rock band Kiss and actor-singer Michael Crawford.
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.
A bipartisan history
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.
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Members of the rock group KISS; Gene Simmons, clockwise from right,
Ace Frehley, Peter Criss and Paul Stanley are photographed before a
concert in Hartford, Conn.,on Feb. 16, 1977. (AP Photo/Richard Drew,
File)
 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+.
A personal approach
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.
___
Italie reported from New York. Associated Press writer Darlene
Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
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