Bill Maher was the one receiving a top comedy award at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. But as the tributes and roasts began on Sunday, it became clear that even in his absence, President Trump had second billing.
“Finally, an award for my dear friend — ironically at the Trump Kennedy Center,” Woody Harrelson said at the arts center, where Mr. Maher was getting the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
“Oh right, we fixed that,” Mr. Harrelson said, referring to a court’s decision to remove the president’s name from the building.
“Not as though you’d be able to notice,” he added, alluding to the tarps outside that are still obscuring the marble where Mr. Trump’s name was taken down this month.
Earlier, the comedian Whitney Cummings joked that with Mr. Trump’s influence as chairman of the Kennedy Center, the fall program would include a “three-month run of white ‘Hamilton.’”
The jabs would make for a typical night in any East Coast comedy club. But this was the Kennedy Center: an institution that, during the second Trump administration, has increasingly functioned as an arm of the White House — and sometimes even a showcase for the president himself.
The decision to honor Mr. Maher, the acerbic late-night host, opened up the potential for a politically combustible night. A frequent critic of Mr. Trump, Mr. Maher has publicly feuded with the president over the years, while also drawing approval from conservatives for his gleeful mockery of “woke” progressivism.
A self-described “old-school liberal,” Mr. Maher regularly criticizes the president and his party on his HBO talk show, “Real Time With Bill Maher.” On his show in recent months, Mr. Maher has likened Mr. Trump to an emperor, mocked his approval ratings and recent deal with Iran, and said the president has done “things that are racist, misogynistic, anti-democratic and corrupt.”
Mr. Trump has singled Mr. Maher out for criticism over the years, devoting a 495-word social media rant to him in February that called him a “highly overrated LIGHTWEIGHT.”
On Sunday, the political barbs were scattered through sets dedicated to honoring Mr. Maher, who was described from the stage as someone willing to criticize both parties because he cares about the country.
“He goes out there, says stuff nobody else would say,” the comedian Louis C.K. said. “He speaks to both sides, against both sides, but he’s funny every night.”
Describing Mr. Maher as someone in a “very committed, very toxic relationship with the United States of America,” Ms. Cummings joked that “Bill and America are like that couple — everyone thinks you get divorced, but in Bill’s mind, if he can just get her to rehab one more time, she’ll get back to being the Lady Liberty he fell in love with.”
“Not so manic-depressive,” she went on, “but gets wasted and tries to buy Greenland.”
Mr. Maher and those honoring him agreed to appear onstage at the Kennedy Center at a time when many artists are unwilling to perform at what that has become a lightning rod in Washington.
Sunday’s event, which is scheduled to premiere on Netflix on July 21, also features guests include the comedian Jay Leno; the singer John Mellencamp; the businesswoman Arianna Huffington; and the sports commentator Stephen A. Smith, who was recently in a public spat with the president.
With a comedy career spanning more than four decades, Mr. Maher made his entry into late-night television in the 1990s with the show “Politically Incorrect,” which featured panels of guests from different industries and ends of the political spectrum. His next act, “Real Time,” became known for its heated cross-party debates and biting monologues.
When it emerged in March that Mr. Maher had been chosen to receive the Mark Twain Prize, the Trump administration initially called it “fake news.” An administration official later said the situation had “changed after further conversations.”
Joking about the reversal on his show, Mr. Maher said a compromise had been reached with the White House.
“I am going to get it and then I’m going to give it to him — everybody’s happy,” Mr. Maher said, adding that he and the president had a “complicated relationship.”
There have also been détentes, though they have been short-lived.
Last year, Mr. Maher attended a dinner at the White House with Mr. Trump, drawing criticism from the left, particularly after Mr. Maher complimented the president for being “gracious and measured” during their meeting. Poking fun at their rocky history, Mr. Maher said he had asked the president to sign a list of insults Mr. Trump had used against him over the years. Among them: “sleazebag,” “third-rate comedian” and “low ratings dummy.”
After taking over as chairman of the center in his second term, Mr. Trump and his allies set about molding it to their politics and cultural tastes, though legal challenges have begun to undermine their agenda.
The Kennedy Center has been under a microscope this month as it complies with a judicial order that undermined Mr. Trump’s agenda. A federal judge temporarily blocked the president’s plan to close the center for two years of renovations starting after Independence Day, saying that its board had not properly considered the potential consequences of such a decision. Officials there have yet to decide on a path forward.
Facing a June 12 deadline for removing Mr. Trump’s name from the building, the center directed workers to take down the 18 letters that had been added to the marble facade in December. They obscured the removal by first constructing a towering matrix of scaffolding covered in tarps.
Two weeks later, the tarps remain.
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