Since returning to office this year, President Donald Trump has taken an uncommonly huge interest in the Kennedy Center, the Washington performing arts venue. Trump has fired the board, installed a loyalist in charge, and spawned protests, artist walkouts, and separate incidents in which both himself and Vice President JD Vance were booed while attending shows there.
Per an NPR report this week, Trump has revealed that he was “very involved” in choosing this year’s honorees, who include country singer George Strait, disco singer Gloria Gaynor, Broadway singer Michael Crawford, the rock band Kiss, and longtime Hollywood A-lister Sylvester Stallone.
Tom Cruise has declined a major Kennedy Center Award from Donald Trump. https://t.co/75aQB3b7RS
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) August 14, 2025
Trump will also host the awards show himself, he has announced.
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On Tuesday, the report said, “staff were caught off guard” by the announcement, and Kennedy Center Honors’ executive producer Matthew Winer announced his resignation the same day.
However, Trump didn’t get everything he wanted from the honors- actor Tom Cruise turned down a lifetime achievement award, citing “scheduling conflicts,” The Daily Beast reported. The awards show is scheduled to take place on December 7.
“The Mission: Impossible star is notoriously quiet on politically charged subjects, opting instead to put his star power behind supporting the military, veterans, and, of course, Scientology,” the Beast reported.
Gonna pretend this is how Tom Cruise answered the phone when Trump called about giving him a Kennedy Center Honor pic.twitter.com/VK4lGv9IaE
— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) August 15, 2025
CNN wrote this week about how the choice to honor those particular people “explains Trump.”
“As always, Trump was setting a trap for his political foes,” Stephen Collinson writes for CNN. “Any criticism of his choices as too lowbrow or undeserving will only bolster his claims to be a scourge of the establishment and endear him more to supporters who lionize him as the ultimate outsider.”
He notes that the president typically does not personally choose the Kennedy Center honorees, or even take a public interest in the process.
“But Trump is a ravenous consumer of pop culture and is unusually skilled at leveraging it for political gain. He’s the executive producer of his own life and political career. So there was no chance he’d pass up a chance to stage-manage this show — and even plans to host the televised gala himself. He professed to have been press-ganged into it by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. She probably didn’t have to twist his arm for too long.”
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
