{"id":193039,"date":"2025-12-09T22:00:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T22:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-claims-rave-reviews-for-hosting-kennedy-center-honors-before-ceremony-even-ends-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T22:00:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T22:00:15","slug":"trump-claims-rave-reviews-for-hosting-kennedy-center-honors-before-ceremony-even-ends-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-claims-rave-reviews-for-hosting-kennedy-center-honors-before-ceremony-even-ends-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump claims rave reviews for hosting Kennedy Center Honors \u2013 before ceremony even ends – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

President refers jokingly to renamed \u2018Trump-Kennedy Center\u2019 at celebration of stars from music and film
Donald Trump added another job title \u2013 awards host \u2013 to his presidential portfolio on Sunday when he took charge of the Kennedy Center Honors<\/a> in Washington, claiming his show was getting \u201crave reviews\u201d even before it ended.
The US president stayed away<\/a> from the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts during his first term. But since returning to office in January, he has made the complex a lightning rod in a broader attack against what he has labelled \u201cwoke\u201d anti-American culture.
\u201cThis is the greatest evening in the history of the Kennedy Center \u2013 not even a contest,\u201d Trump said with evident relish from a presidential lectern at centre stage. \u201cThere has never been anything like it and the show is already getting rave reviews.
\u201cNow, I will say that I guarantee the fake news is going to give me horrible \u2013 \u2018He was horrible as an emcee. Don\u2019t ever let that happen again!\u2019 But I guarantee one thing: we\u2019re going get big ratings today. This place is hot.\u201d
The president referred jokingly to a renamed \u201cTrump-Kennedy Center\u201d, earning laughter and applause, before adding: \u201cWell, we\u2019re really having a good time tonight. So many people I know in this audience. Some good. Some bad. Some I truly love and respect. Some I just hate.\u201d
The Honors are the country\u2019s highest recognition for lifetime achievement in the performing arts. Trump\u2019s determination to insert himself into Sunday\u2019s ceremony underlined his unprecedented effort<\/a> over the past 10 months to dominate America\u2019s cultural space.
Having seized control of the Kennedy Center<\/a> in February, Trump became the first president in the 47-year history of its prestigious honours ceremony to serve as host, following in the footsteps of Walter Cronkite, Caroline Kennedy, Stephen Colbert, Glenn Close and Queen Latifah.
His duties involved a 20-minute walk down the red carpet with his wife, Melania Trump<\/a>, as he fielded questions from reporters, then three speeches from the opera house stage, plus a series of pre-recorded videos from the Oval Office to introduce each of the honourees that were played on a big screen.
Trump, a former host of the reality TV show The Apprentice, said he was deeply involved in choosing the recipients and about 50 names were whittled down to five.
The show reflected his nostalgia for late 20th-century culture with a heavy focus on the actor Sylvester Stallone\u2019s Rocky (1976)<\/a>, Michael Crawford\u2019s performance in The Phantom of the Opera (1986), George Strait\u2019s emergence as a country star in the 1980s, disco singer Gloria Gaynor\u2019s hit single I Will Survive (1978) and rock band Kiss\u2019s live album Alive! (1975), which featured the hit Rock and Roll All Nite.
The night started with Trump entering to the Rocky theme music and cheers, applause and cries of \u201cWe love you!\u201d from an audience conspicuously less racially diverse than in recent years.
Trump said the honourees shared the quality of persistence. \u201cSome of them have had legendary setbacks; setbacks that you have to read in the papers because of their level of fame. But in the words of Rocky Balboa, they showed us that you keep moving forward, just keep moving forward.\u201d
He said many of the politicians, celebrities and others in the audience share the trait too. \u201cI know so many of you, and you are persistent. Many of you are miserable, horrible people. But you are persistent, you never give up. Sometimes I wish you\u2019d give up, but you don\u2019t.\u201d
Then came a tribute to Stallone from actor Kurt Russell and others. Next up was a tribute to British stage actor Crawford, who originated the lead role in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical The Phantom of the Opera<\/a>. A rendition of that show\u2019s title song and ballad The Music of the Night were performed as a tribute.
The singers Vince Gill, Miranda Lambert and the country duo Brooks & Dunn sang selections in Strait\u2019s honour, and Gaynor was celebrated with a version of her signature song, complete with disco lights around the theatre.
The final tribute went to Kiss, whose members Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss rose to fame with hits such as I Was Made for Lovin\u2019 You. Frehley died in October<\/a>. The singer Garth Brooks performed a rousing rendition of Shout it Out Loud and the rock band Cheap Trick closed the evening with a rendition of Rock and Roll All Nite.
The audience included the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, the head of Medicare and Medicaid, Mehmet Oz, the US Agency for Global Media leader, Kari Lake, and the Virginia governor, Glenn Youngkin. Democrats were far more scarce than usual.
Trump proved more disciplined in his remarks than at some other high-profile events but could not resist partisan point-scoring. \u201cYou know, they tried to get [Joe] Biden to do this,\u201d he riffed. \u201cFour years in a row, they tried getting him. He said: \u2018I don\u2019t think so.\u2019 It would have been very interesting, though, wouldn\u2019t it? I would have watched.\u201d The audience roared with laughter.
Trump\u2019s impact on the Kennedy Center has been dramatic. He fired its president, installed a new board that made him chair and ordered a renovation of the building.
The Center\u2019s new president, Ric Grenell<\/a>, who once served as Trump\u2019s ambassador to Germany, is overseeing the performing arts complex\u2019s multimillion-dollar renovation and revamping the organisation\u2019s events, including hosting the football World Cup draw<\/a> last Friday.
Grenell\u2019s tenure has been marked by staff turnover and discontent in the arts community about the centre\u2019s direction, leading to reports of a decline in ticket sales<\/a>.
For the past decade, the Kennedy Center Honors red carpet has been dominated by criticism of Trump in his absence. But on Sunday the honourees were careful to avoid taking sides.
Crawford, 83, said<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019m nonpolitical. I\u2019ve just been invited to be here and I\u2019m here \u2026 We work for an audience. We don\u2019t know who they are. We don\u2019t know what colour they are, how tall they are, how short they are, what they believe in or what they don\u2019t. They\u2019re in the dark and we entertain you.\u201d
Stanley of Kiss said: \u201cOverpoliticising a celebration of the arts is a distortion of the intent and, over the years, certainly the nominees and people who have won the awards in the past weren\u2019t asked who they voted for or what their political beliefs were. At some point, it\u2019s important for people to open their minds and shut their mouths.\u201d
The Kiss singer Simmons, wearing boots made of python skin, added: \u201cWhether you\u2019re a fan of the president or not, he\u2019s never boring. The worst thing is to have some bloated person get up there and make long speeches. No matter what he does, this president\u2019s going to be entertaining.\u201d
Trump, for his part, was asked how he had prepared for his Kennedy Center Honors hosting debut. \u201cI have a lot on my plate and I didn\u2019t really prepare very much,\u201d he admitted. \u201cI read a little bit. I have a good memory so I can remember things, which was very fortunate. But I wanted to just be myself. You have to be yourself. Johnny Carson<\/a> \u2013 he was himself.\u201d
The Kennedy Center Honors show will air on the CBS television network on 23 December<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President refers jokingly to renamed \u2018Trump-Kennedy Center\u2019 at celebration of stars from music and filmDonald Trump added another job title \u2013 awards host \u2013 to his presidential portfolio on Sunday when he took charge of the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, claiming his show was getting \u201crave reviews\u201d even before it ended.The US president stayed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":193040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}