President Trump visited the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington on Wednesday morning to announce this year’s class of Kennedy Center honorees, and to reveal that he had decided to host the ceremony personally.
The five honorees this year are: the country music legend George Strait, the English actor Michael Crawford, the action-film star Sylvester Stallone, the disco-era singer Gloria Gaynor and the rock band Kiss.
Mr. Trump has taken a strong interest in the Kennedy Center’s affairs ever since naming himself chairman in February, when he purged its traditionally bipartisan board of Biden-era appointees and restocked it with loyalists.
In March, Mr. Trump toured the center and met with his new board for the first time and floated the idea of hosting the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony himself, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by The New York Times. Mr. Trump referred to himself then as “the king of ratings.”
He boycotted the ceremony during his first term after several of the artists who were being honored criticized him. This time, he suggested he had vetted the final list himself, saying he had rejected several prospective honorees he called “wokesters.”
Shawn McCreesh is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration.
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