During his first term, President Trump broke with precedent and steered clear of the Kennedy Center Honors after some of the artists being celebrated criticized him.
This year’s honors were essentially the Trump Show.
Mr. Trump, who took over the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts at the start of his second term, hosted the ceremony on Sunday night (CBS will broadcast it later this month). He took an unusually direct role in choosing the honorees, who included the actor Sylvester Stallone; the rock band Kiss; Gloria Gaynor, the disco diva known for “I Will Survive”; George Strait, the country hitmaker; and Michael Crawford, the English actor who starred in “The Phantom of the Opera,” which is one of Mr. Trump’s favorite musicals.
Here are six memorable moments from the weekend of honors-related events.
The president made a winking mention of a ‘Trump Kennedy Center.’
In extolling some of the changes that he was making at the arts center, Mr. Trump feigned a slip-up, referring to “the Trump Kennedy Center — I mean, Kennedy Center.” The friendly audience in the opera house erupted in laughter and applause. “I’m sorry!” the president said, holding up his hands and not looking very sorry. “I’m sorry, this is terribly embarrassing.”
It wasn’t the first time that the president had — perhaps half-jokingly — slipped into his remarks a new name for the decades-old cultural institution, which he took over after purging Democrats from its traditionally bipartisan board of directors, installing himself as chairman and replacing its longtime president with a loyalist.
Mr. Trump compared himself to Johnny Carson.
Mr. Trump had late-night talk show hosts on his mind. When he first took the stage, he suggested that he would try to “act like Johnny Carson.”
“We miss Johnny, don’t we?” he said, before launching into what he described as “the most exciting evening of this kind in a long, long time in our country.”
On Saturday, during a ceremony in the Oval Office in which he bestowed the honorees with medallions, Mr. Trump brought up one of his favorite targets: the late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who Mr. Trump has repeatedly said should be fired from his post.
“I’ve watched some of the people to host — Jimmy Kimmel was horrible,” Mr. Trump said with the honorees lined up behind him. (Mr. Kimmel has not hosted the Kennedy Center Honors, although he has hosted other awards shows, including last year’s Academy Awards, which Mr. Trump criticized at the time. And Mr. Kimmel was one of the comedians who paid tribute to David Letterman at the honors in 2012.)
Mr. Trump added, “If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president.”
The president still loves ‘Phantom.’
A pop culture obsessive, Mr. Trump was not shy about appearing like a fan. Especially when it came to Mr. Crawford, who originated the title role in “Phantom of the Opera” in London in the 1980s.
“I don’t want to say how many times I’ve seen you in ‘Phantom,’” Mr. Trump told Mr. Crawford at a dinner at the State Department on Saturday.
“The way he moved, the voice was magnificent,” he said later, “but the way he moved and the hands, the whole thing, it’s just — there will never be anything like it.”
At the gala on Sunday, Mr. Trump and Mr. Crawford watched from the presidential box as two singers, David Phelps and Laura Osnes, performed the musical’s title song.
This time, the artists did not criticize Mr. Trump.
During his first term, some of the artists who were given honors at the Kennedy Center — including Norman Lear, the television producer, and Carmen de Lavallade, the dancer and choreographer — criticized Mr. Trump and said they would not attend a reception at the White House. Mr. Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, announced that they would not participate in the honors “to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction.”
This time, artists and presenters either praised Mr. Trump effusively or sought to distance themselves from the politics of it all. Kelsey Grammer, who was chosen to speak at the honors in praise of Mr. Crawford, told Fox News on Saturday that Mr. Trump was “one of the greatest presidents we’ve ever had.”
Gene Simmons of Kiss applauded the idea of having the president host the program and even praised his plans to build a White House ballroom in a conversation with reporters on the red carpet. “I believe the ballroom that’s being built, which is going to be twice as big, that is exactly what we need — a face-lift,” he said. “Have you ever been to Versailles? The American house of the people is shameful.”
Mr. Trump appeared to wonder from the stage if some in the audience wouldn’t be so effusive. In previewing performances by the country musicians Vince Gill, Garth Brooks and Brooks & Dunn, Mr. Trump told the guests: “They probably don’t like me very much. But all I know is they’re big, right? We want bigness. We don’t care if they like Trump — we want bigness, right?”
Garth Brooks performed at President Biden’s inauguration in 2021, calling the appearance a “statement of unity” and “not a political statement.”
As host, Mr. Trump roasted his audience.
An awards show audience is liable to become subject to some good-natured ribbing, even when it contains members of Mr. Trump’s cabinet, Kennedy Center donors and board members, corporate executives, conservative media personalities and Washington aides.
“So many people I know in this audience, some good, some bad,” Mr. Trump said midway through the show. “Some I really love and respect. Some I truly hate. But they’re having a good time.”
And when he spoke about the “persistence” of artists in his opening remarks, Mr. Trump landed more jabs. “I can say that with a lot of the members of our audience — I know so many of you, and you are persistent,” he said. “Many of you are miserable, horrible people. But you are persistent, you never give up. Sometimes I wish you’d give up, but you don’t.”
The president joked about a new role next year.
With the president exerting more influence over the performing arts center, a reporter on the red carpet suggested another idea: What about Mr. Trump as an honoree?
“That’s an interesting one, I haven’t thought of that,” the president replied, with a glimmer in his eye. “Yeah, I think I’m going to nominate myself for next year.”
Julia Jacobs is an arts and culture reporter who often covers legal issues for The Times.
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