Trump to Visit Kennedy Center as Honorees Revealed

President Donald Trump is set to make an announcement Wednesday at the Kennedy Center, where this year’s honorees for its annual award are being revealed.

Trump avoided the Kennedy Center Honors during his first term after artists said they would not attend out of protest. This year, the Republican president has taken over as the Kennedy Center's new chairman and dismissed the board of trustees and appointed new members of his choosing.

In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, Trump teased a name change for the center, formally the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and said it would be restored to its past glory.

“GREAT Nominees for the TRUMP/KENNEDY CENTER, whoops, I mean, KENNEDY CENTER, AWARDS,” Trump wrote. He said work was being done on the site that would be “bringing it back to the absolute TOP LEVEL of luxury, glamour, and entertainment.”

“It had fallen on hard times, physically, BUT WILL SOON BE MAKING A MAJOR COMEBACK!!!” he wrote.

It is unclear how this year's honorees were chosen, though Trump had indicated he wanted a more active role. Historically, a bipartisan advisory committee selects the recipients, who over the years have ranged from George Balanchine and Tom Hanks to Aretha Franklin and Stephen Sondheim. A message sent to the Kennedy Center press office asking how this year's honorees were selected wasn’t returned Tuesday.

The Kennedy Center did post this on social media, however: “Coming Soon ... A country music icon, an Englishman, a New York City Rock band, a dance Queen and a multi-billion dollar Actor walk into the Kennedy Center Opera House ...”

In the past, Trump has floated the idea of granting Kennedy Center Honors status to singer-songwriter Paul Anka and actor Sylvester Stallone, one of three actors Trump named as Hollywood ambassadors earlier this year. Anka was supposed to perform “My Way” at Trump’s first inaugural and backed out at the last moment.

The Kennedy Center Honors were established in 1978 and have been handed out to a broad range of artists. Until Trump’s first term, presidents of both major political parties traditionally attended the annual ceremony, even when they disagreed politically with a given recipient.

Prominent liberals such as Barbra Streisand and Warren Beatty were honored during the administration of Republican George W. Bush, and a leading conservative, Charlton Heston, was feted during the administration of Democrat Bill Clinton.

In 2017, after honoree Norman Lear declared that he would not attend a White House celebration in protest of Trump’s proposed cuts to federal arts funding, Trump and first lady Melania Trump decided to skip the Kennedy Center event and remained away throughout his first term. Honorees during that time included such Trump critics as Cher, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Sally Field.

Since taking office for a second time, Trump has assumed a more active role in the Kennedy Center, appointing himself chairman, replacing the board, and indicating he would participate in decisions regarding programming at the center.

The steps have drawn further criticism from some artists. In March, the producers of ‘Hamilton’ pulled out of staging the Broadway hit musical in 2026, citing Trump’s increased involvement in the institution’s leadership. Other artists who canceled events include actor Issa Rae, singer Rhiannon Giddens and author Louise Penny.

House Republicans have introduced an amendment to a spending bill that would rename the Kennedy Center’s opera house after Melania Trump. Maria Shriver, a niece of the late President Kennedy, a Democrat, has criticized as “insane” a separate House proposal to rename the center after Trump.

Recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors are given a medallion on a rainbow ribbon, a nod to the range of skills that fall under the performing arts. In April, the center changed the lights on the exterior from the long-standing rainbow to a permanent red, white and blue display.