Of course, that whole thing is a little hard to buy considering how much Trump did insist on firing the board of the storied institution and instating himself as chairman earlier this year. (According to NPR, the Center’s staff didn’t even know he’d be announcing the honorees today.) Reticence at the idea of hosting or not, the president also said he was “about 98% involved” in the selection of this year’s honorees, per Deadline. And how did he choose those illustrious artists? He apparently “turned down plenty” of options because “they were too woke.” And if you didn’t get the message, “I had a couple of wokesters,” he reiterated.
So let’s meet those non-woke honorees, as determined by our Commander-in-Chief. The first is country artist George Strait, whom Trump deemed “a good looking guy.” Then there’s Michael Crawford, the original Phantom of the Opera and “one of the greatest talents [Trump has] ever actually seen.” Other honorees include long-time Trump supporter Sylvester Stallone, Gloria Gaynor, and Kiss.
Trump has not always been so enthusiastic about attending the annual award ceremony. During his first term, the president and Melania Trump played hooky so the honorees could “celebrate without any political distraction,” as he said at the time. Unsurprisingly, his attitude has changed. “I shouldn’t make this political, because they made the Academy Awards political and they went down the tubes,” he said during today’s speech. (This year’s Oscars did experience a slight 7% dip in viewership, but 18.1 million people still tuned in to watch Conan O’Brien hand out the awards. Perhaps we need a more standardized definition of “down the tubes.”) “They’ll say, ‘Trump made it political,’ but I think if we make it our kind of political, we’ll go up,” he continued. “Okay, let’s see if I’m right about that.”
Trump has also made his mark on the Kennedy Center in other ways. Republicans have introduced legislation to not just name the institute’s opera house for Melania Trump, but also to go ahead and rename the whole thing the “Donald J. Trump Center for the Performing Arts.” At least he hasn’t straight up honored himself—yet. “Since 1978, the Kennedy Center Honors have been among the most prestigious awards in the performing arts. I wanted one. I was never able to get one,” he said during his speech. “I waited and waited and waited and said, ‘To hell with it, I’ll become chairman.’ Then I’ll give myself an honor… Next year we’ll honor Trump, okay?” We’ll see how much he wants the hosting job then.
