The View panelist Ana Navarro has urged disco icon Gloria Gaynor to reject President Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center honor.
Gaynor, 81, best known for her 1978 anthem “I Will Survive,” is among a select group of stage, screen, and music legends chosen to receive the prestigious award at this year’s ceremony, which will be hosted by Trump himself. Rocky star Sylvester Stallone, country singer George Strait, British actor Michael Crawford, and rock band KISS are also among the honorees — all chosen by the performing arts center’s board and approved by the two-term president.
The day after the slate of honorees was unveiled, Navarro, 53, an outspoken Trump critic, posted an impassioned plea on Instagram, imploring Gaynor to turn down the accolade.
“A few years ago, I got to briefly meet @gloriagaynor at a concert in Miami. She gifted me a keychain that belted out ‘I Will Survive’ when you pressed it. Let’s just say, during first Trump term, I pressed it til it ran out of batteries,” the TV host and political commentator captioned the Thursday post.
“Yesterday, Trump announced he picked her to receive a Kennedy Center Honor, which he plans to host,” Navarro added.
Lauding Gaynor as a “goddess” who “deserves all the flowers that come her way,” she said: “But I wish she wouldn’t accept an award from the hands of a man who has attacked the rights and history of women, people of color and LGBTQ.
“The gay community in particular, helped turn her signature song into an anthem,” she noted. “Trump is a stain on the prestige and significance of the KCH. Don’t do it, Gloria!”
Following his return to the Oval Office, Trump controversially took over the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, firing the center’s board and putting MAGA loyalist Richard Grenell in charge of the famed institution. Trump was then elected as Chairman of the Board.
The annual Kennedy Center Honors ceremony, which typically recognizes those in the performing arts for their lifetime of contributions to American culture, will be held in December at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, D.C. Previously hosted by the likes of the late CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite and Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, this year’s ceremony will be emceed by none other than Trump.
During Wednesday’s press conference, Trump announced two-time Grammy winner Gaynor as the fourth honoree.
“To have the two, top two, top of anything in that span of time, and with that kind of period between, is pretty amazing,” he said. “But I will say that ‘I Will Survive’ is an unbelievable song. I’ve heard it, you know, like everyone else here, thousands of times, and it’s one of those few that get better every time you hear it, and nobody can sing it like her.”
Gaynor has yet to publicly respond to Trump’s Kennedy Center Honors.
