Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he will host the Kennedy Center honors this year and said he had been heavily involved in choosing who to nominate, rejecting people he thought were too liberal.
The US president named actor Sylvester Stallone, singer Gloria Gaynor, the rock band Kiss, country music star George Strait and actor and singer Michael Crawford among the first batch of Kennedy Center honors nominees since he took over as the Washington-based arts center’s chairman upon returning to the White House this year.
The president typically attends the annual honors event each December but sits in the audience as a VIP and hosts a reception for awardees at the White House. Trump’s announcement that he will host the event is a break from tradition, although no details were released on what form that would take.
His announcement continues his push to exert authority over US cultural institutions, such as the Smithsonian, and Democratic-led cities and came on the first full day that federalized national guard troops were on duty on the streets of Washington by order of the president. Trump has cited a crisis of crime and homelessness in the nation’s capital to sharp criticism from opponents.
In an appearance at the arts center on Wednesday morning, Trump also said that he intends to “fully renovate” the entire infrastructure of the Kennedy Center to make it a “crown jewel” of arts and culture in the US.
“We’re going to bring it to a higher level than it ever hit,” the president said, adding the venue would be featured in next year’s celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the US founding.
Trump said he had been invited to host the Kennedy Center honors and had reluctantly agreed.
Trump avoided the Kennedy Center awards during his first term after artists said they would not attend out of protest. After taking over as the chairman this year he fired the board of trustees and replaced it with loyalists amid an overhaul of the venue’s offerings.
In March, the producers of the rap musical Hamilton pulled out of staging their Broadway hit, citing Trump’s aggressive takeover of the institution’s leadership.
In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, Trump had teased a name change for the center, formally the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and said it would be restored to its past glory.
“GREAT Nominees for the TRUMP/KENNEDY CENTER, whoops, I mean, KENNEDY CENTER, AWARDS,” Trump wrote. He said work was being done on the site that would bring it “back to the absolute TOP LEVEL of luxury, glamour, and entertainment”.
“It had fallen on hard times, physically, BUT WILL SOON BE MAKING A MAJOR COMEBACK!!!” he wrote. He did not announce a name change during his appearance later on Wednesday.
House Republicans added an amendment to a spending bill Trump signed into law in July to rename the Kennedy Center Opera House after Melania Trump, but that venue has yet to be renamed. Maria Shriver, a niece of the late President Kennedy, a Democrat, has criticized as “insane” a separate House proposal to rename the entire center after Trump.
Trump said he was “about 98% involved” in choosing the honorees this year. He added that he “turned down plenty” of names, saying those individuals were “too woke” or too liberal. He described the artists he announced on Wednesday, including several of his favorites, as “great people”.
Historically, a bipartisan advisory committee selects the recipients, who over the years have ranged from George Balanchine and Tom Hanks to Aretha Franklin, Joni Mitchell and Stephen Sondheim.
In the past, Trump has floated the idea of granting Kennedy Center honors status to singer-songwriter Paul Anka and Stallone, one of three actors Trump named as Hollywood ambassadors earlier this year. Anka was supposed to perform My Way at Trump’s first inaugural ball and backed out at the last moment.
The Kennedy Center honors were established in 1978 and have been given to a broad range of artists.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
