
President Trump’s new Kennedy Center Awards lineup for 2025 has been making waves and marking a significant shift in the administration of the high-profile cultural agency. Below are the full details:
- Trump also became the chairman of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees this year and has also taken an unprecedented personal role by offering to host the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors ceremony himself. It is the first time a sitting president has hosted the ceremony.
- He vowed that the event and the complex would be renovated quickly and inexpensively, with a goal of “luxury, glamour, and entertainment” at the utmost level.
- Performing the ceremony is a return to face-to-face presidential engagement with the awards, that had been shunned by Trump in his initial term.
- Trump has overseen radical shake-up at the Kennedy Center, including the firing of many members of its board and their replacement with loyalists.
- He pledged to renovate the building to a large extent, including overhauling the seating arrangements fully to update the facility.
- One aspect of the remake was abandoning what he called “woke programming,” which he faulted for having previously hosted drag shows for children, a sign of a more right-wing cultural trajectory.
- The recipients’ list is a combination of veteran and newer entertainment celebrities, a mix showing Trump’s eclectic taste and political appeal.
- The honorees for 2025 include:
- George Strait (country music legend)
- Michael Crawford (Creator of “Phantom of the Opera,” actor, stage and screen)
- Sylvester Stallone (the actor and “Rocky” and “Rambo” fame)
- Gloria Gaynor (legend of disco music)
- KISS (rock band with flamboyant stage production heritage)
- Trump called the class “a truly exceptional class” to be honored in December.
- Trump’s action forms part of a larger attempt at revamping Washington, D.C.’s institutions of culture, including a proposal to rename the Kennedy Center after First Lady Melania Trump, even as it was opposed on grounds of legal limitations.
- Certain productions and performers boycotted or canceled performances at the Kennedy Center in protest of Trump’s affiliation and changes.
- The event will be broadcast on CBS, and Trump is hoping that his personal participation will draw in additional viewers.
- The shake-up represents a new era when the Kennedy Center is no longer a nonpolitical cultural institution but rather more in line with Trump’s vision of American arts—a blend of nationalism, conservative values, and entertainment.
- Trump’s attempt at revamping the Kennedy Center has stoked debate about the role of politics in arts awards and the destiny of institutions like this.
President Trump’s just-released Kennedy Center Awards lineup for 2025 is a testament to his personal power and sway over the event and the institution, a brazen break with tradition by hosting the program himself, upending the selection of honorees, and advancing a conservative cultural agenda—all adding up to a whirlwind Hollywood and cultural revolution for the year.