Fascists Come For the Culture: Trump Takeover of the Kennedy Center Honors
Wajahat Ali
August 13, 2025
VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkc22kCkt5A
Wajahat Ali
August 13, 2025
VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkc22kCkt5A
Trump and MAGA are incapable of creating relevant and meaningful culture, so they must rig the system, appropriate our institutions, and cheat because they can't compete with the rest of us.
https://thelefthook.substack.com/p/fa...
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/us/politics/trump-kennedy-center-nominees.html
https://thelefthook.substack.com/p/fa...
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/us/politics/trump-kennedy-center-nominees.html
Trump Names Kennedy Center Honorees and Says He Will Host Ceremony
The president has taken a strong interest in the Kennedy Center’s affairs ever since naming himself chairman in February, when he restocked its traditionally bipartisan board with loyalists.
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IMAGE: President Donald J. Trump said that he would be hosting the Kennedy Center Honors himself in December and announced the honorees, which included Sylvester Stallone and Gloria Gaynor. Mr. Trump then focused most of his remarks on the National Guard being deployed to Washington.Credit:Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times
by Shawn McCreesh and Katie Rogers
Reporting from Washington
August 13, 2025
New York Times
President Trump affirmed his growing influence over the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington on Wednesday morning by announcing the new class of Kennedy Center honorees and revealing that he would host this year’s ceremony personally.
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. His news conference made clear that he is in complete control of the Kennedy Center Honors: He suggested he had approved the final list of honorees himself, saying he rejected several prospective names he called “wokesters.”
Instead, his list included the country music legend George Strait, the disco queen Gloria Gaynor, and the glam rock band Kiss as musical honorees. Joining them were Michael Crawford, a British actor decorated for his stage performances in musicals like “Phantom of the Opera,” and Sylvester Stallone, the American action actor best known for portraying the boxer Rocky Balboa in a series of eponymous films and the mercenary warrior John Rambo in another box-office franchise.
Mr. Trump spoke at length about Mr. Stallone, whom he said in January would serve as a special ambassador to Hollywood along with two other supporters, Mel Gibson and Jon Voight, who he said would be his “eyes and ears” in the entertainment capital.
The announcement, in a week when Mr. Trump has taken federal control of Washington’s police department and launched a review of exhibits at the Smithsonian, marked another step in his cultural takeover of Washington and its institutions.
In March, Mr. Trump toured the Kennedy Center and met with his new board for the first time and floated the idea of hosting its annual 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 reveled in his view from behind the lectern, remarking on the center’s marble columns and his thoughts about how to renovate everything from its grand spaces to the lawns outside. “We’re going to redo the grass with the finest grasses,” he said.
His lengthy remarks veered between topics for about an hour, and included personal memories of Mr. Stallone’s films, his thoughts about a peace deal for Ukraine; critiques of favored targets like former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the Federal Reserve chair Jerome H. Powell; and his distaste for Washington itself, a capital city that he once again derided as “dirty.”
Asked by reporters about his looming summit with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Friday in Alaska, Mr. Trump said Russia would face consequences if it did not agree to stop its war in Ukraine. He did not offer details except to say those consequences would be “very severe.”
Mr. Trump told a reporter that he probably would not be able to stop Mr. Putin from targeting civilians in Ukraine, because he had had that conversation with the Russian leader before, and the killings of civilians have continued.
Shawn McCreesh is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration.
Katie Rogers is a White House correspondent for The Times, reporting on President Trump.
See more on: Donald Trump, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, U.S. Politics
The president has taken a strong interest in the Kennedy Center’s affairs ever since naming himself chairman in February, when he restocked its traditionally bipartisan board with loyalists.
Listen to this article · 3:39 minutes
Learn more
VIDEO:
https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000010338772/trump-ukraine-russia-national-guard.html?smid=url-share
IMAGE: President Donald J. Trump said that he would be hosting the Kennedy Center Honors himself in December and announced the honorees, which included Sylvester Stallone and Gloria Gaynor. Mr. Trump then focused most of his remarks on the National Guard being deployed to Washington.Credit:Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times
by Shawn McCreesh and Katie Rogers
Reporting from Washington
August 13, 2025
New York Times
President Trump affirmed his growing influence over the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington on Wednesday morning by announcing the new class of Kennedy Center honorees and revealing that he would host this year’s ceremony personally.
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. His news conference made clear that he is in complete control of the Kennedy Center Honors: He suggested he had approved the final list of honorees himself, saying he rejected several prospective names he called “wokesters.”
Instead, his list included the country music legend George Strait, the disco queen Gloria Gaynor, and the glam rock band Kiss as musical honorees. Joining them were Michael Crawford, a British actor decorated for his stage performances in musicals like “Phantom of the Opera,” and Sylvester Stallone, the American action actor best known for portraying the boxer Rocky Balboa in a series of eponymous films and the mercenary warrior John Rambo in another box-office franchise.
Mr. Trump spoke at length about Mr. Stallone, whom he said in January would serve as a special ambassador to Hollywood along with two other supporters, Mel Gibson and Jon Voight, who he said would be his “eyes and ears” in the entertainment capital.
The announcement, in a week when Mr. Trump has taken federal control of Washington’s police department and launched a review of exhibits at the Smithsonian, marked another step in his cultural takeover of Washington and its institutions.
In March, Mr. Trump toured the Kennedy Center and met with his new board for the first time and floated the idea of hosting its annual 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 reveled in his view from behind the lectern, remarking on the center’s marble columns and his thoughts about how to renovate everything from its grand spaces to the lawns outside. “We’re going to redo the grass with the finest grasses,” he said.
His lengthy remarks veered between topics for about an hour, and included personal memories of Mr. Stallone’s films, his thoughts about a peace deal for Ukraine; critiques of favored targets like former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the Federal Reserve chair Jerome H. Powell; and his distaste for Washington itself, a capital city that he once again derided as “dirty.”
Asked by reporters about his looming summit with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Friday in Alaska, Mr. Trump said Russia would face consequences if it did not agree to stop its war in Ukraine. He did not offer details except to say those consequences would be “very severe.”
Mr. Trump told a reporter that he probably would not be able to stop Mr. Putin from targeting civilians in Ukraine, because he had had that conversation with the Russian leader before, and the killings of civilians have continued.
Shawn McCreesh is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration.
Katie Rogers is a White House correspondent for The Times, reporting on President Trump.
See more on: Donald Trump, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, U.S. Politics
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/us/politics/trump-kennedy-center-pop-culture.html
At the Kennedy Center, Trump Puts His Pop Culture Obsession on Display
President Trump held forth about the nature of show business and his own tortured relationship with celebrity.
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by Shawn McCreesh
August 13, 2025
New York Times
At the Kennedy Center, Trump Puts His Pop Culture Obsession on Display
President Trump held forth about the nature of show business and his own tortured relationship with celebrity.
Listen to this article · 5:39 minutes
Learn more
by Shawn McCreesh
August 13, 2025
New York Times
[Shawn McCreesh is a White House correspondent. He reported from the Kennedy Center in Washington.]
The president of the United States was talking about Gloria Gaynor, Rambo, Kiss, “The Phantom of the Opera” and Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign.
It was not 1986 and the president was not Ronald Reagan. It was 2025 and it was Donald Trump.
He was standing on the plush, red-carpeted grand foyer of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, unveiling his own personal choices for the next class of Kennedy Center honorees. He also announced his plans to host the award ceremony himself, and then began to hold forth more generally about the nature of show business and his own tortured relationship with celebrity.
“I’m on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,” Mr. Trump said proudly at one point. “If you can believe that one.”
There is something about the Kennedy Center that seems to bring this out in him — a kind of yearning for a simpler time when he was thought of as a tabloid rascal turned reality television maestro, a mostly in-on-the-joke figure who symbolized greed and commercialism and who appeared in everything from “Home Alone 2” to “Sex and the City” to a Pizza Hut commercial.
Whatever else he is or has become, Donald J. Trump is at heart a pop culture obsessive. A fame junkie of the highest order. Us Weekly in human form.
That piece of him did not just fade away because he became the leader of a populist political movement and a two-time president. It’s all still wound up in there, as was evidenced by so much of what he said on Wednesday.
“Since 1978, the Kennedy Center honors have been among the most prestigious awards in the performing arts,” he said before a small group of top aides, Kennedy Center employees and a bank of television cameras. “I wanted one. I was never able to get one. It’s true, I would have taken it if they would’ve called me. I waited and waited and waited, and I said to hell with it, I’ll become chairman, and I’ll give myself an honor. Next year we’ll honor Trump, OK?”
That last part was said like a joke, but really, who can be sure? Now that Mr. Trump is empowered as never before, he is scratching all sorts of long-held itches. He wants a military parade on his birthday? He throws one. He wants a Mar-a-Lago-style patio off the Oval Office? He paves over the Rose Garden and builds one. He’s sick and tired of being a pariah in the liberal showbusinessland whence he came? He takes over the Kennedy Center and decides to host an awards ceremony himself.
“Look at the Academy Awards,” he said at one point. “It gets lousy ratings now. It’s all woke. All they do is talk about how much they hate Trump, but nobody likes that. They don’t watch anymore.” He talked repeatedly about the ratings he got when he hosted “The Apprentice.”
“I shouldn’t make this political,” he said at another point, “because they made the Academy Awards political, and they went down the tubes.”
Behind him were a series of easel-like stands, covered in red fabric. Two women in very high heels traipsed from stand to stand, Vanna White style, yanking off the fabric to show the faces of celebrity honorees. Each was picked by the president. “I was about 98 percent involved,” Mr. Trump said. “They all went through me.”
He added that he “turned down plenty” because “they were too woke. I had a couple of wokesters.”
The faces of the sufficiently unwoke were revealed.
Among them were the men of Kiss, the glam rock metal band known for the way the members do their makeup. “They made a fortune, and they’re great people, and they deserve it,” Mr. Trump said.
There was also Gloria Gaynor, a disco queen who sang “I Will Survive,” widely considered to be one of the most popular gay anthems of all time. “I will say, ‘I Will Survive’ is an unbelievable song,” Mr. Trump said. “I’ve heard it, you know, like everyone else here, thousands of times, and it’s one of those few that gets better every time you hear it.”
Sylvester Stallone’s mug was up there, too. Mr. Trump recalled the first time he saw the first “Rambo” movie, which came out in 1982. “I’ll never forget, I was a young guy, and I went to see a thing called ‘Rambo,’” he said. “It had just come out and I didn’t know anything about it. I was in a movie theater. We used to go to movie theaters a lot … .”
He referred to Mr. Stallone as “Sly” and called him a “legend of the silver screen.”
This was Mr. Trump’s third visit to the Kennedy Center since he took over in February. His second visit was in June, when he showed up to see a performance of one of his favorite plays, “Les Misérables.” He said he had a great time.
The first time he dropped by since taking over was in March, when he took a tour of the center and met with the new members of the board whom he had appointed. That day he told them that when he was a child he had shown a special aptitude for music. And he reminisced about going to see the premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats” on Broadway in the early 1980s. “They were treating me good because I was a young star, for whatever reason,” he said then. “This is a crazy life I’ve had.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Shawn McCreesh is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration.
A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 14, 2025, Section A, Page 17 of the New York edition with the headline: Pop Culture Fanatic Relives the Glory Days, With Envy for Rambo and Kiss. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper
See more on: U.S. Politics, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Sylvester Stallone, Donald Trump
The president of the United States was talking about Gloria Gaynor, Rambo, Kiss, “The Phantom of the Opera” and Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign.
It was not 1986 and the president was not Ronald Reagan. It was 2025 and it was Donald Trump.
He was standing on the plush, red-carpeted grand foyer of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, unveiling his own personal choices for the next class of Kennedy Center honorees. He also announced his plans to host the award ceremony himself, and then began to hold forth more generally about the nature of show business and his own tortured relationship with celebrity.
“I’m on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,” Mr. Trump said proudly at one point. “If you can believe that one.”
There is something about the Kennedy Center that seems to bring this out in him — a kind of yearning for a simpler time when he was thought of as a tabloid rascal turned reality television maestro, a mostly in-on-the-joke figure who symbolized greed and commercialism and who appeared in everything from “Home Alone 2” to “Sex and the City” to a Pizza Hut commercial.
Whatever else he is or has become, Donald J. Trump is at heart a pop culture obsessive. A fame junkie of the highest order. Us Weekly in human form.
That piece of him did not just fade away because he became the leader of a populist political movement and a two-time president. It’s all still wound up in there, as was evidenced by so much of what he said on Wednesday.
“Since 1978, the Kennedy Center honors have been among the most prestigious awards in the performing arts,” he said before a small group of top aides, Kennedy Center employees and a bank of television cameras. “I wanted one. I was never able to get one. It’s true, I would have taken it if they would’ve called me. I waited and waited and waited, and I said to hell with it, I’ll become chairman, and I’ll give myself an honor. Next year we’ll honor Trump, OK?”
That last part was said like a joke, but really, who can be sure? Now that Mr. Trump is empowered as never before, he is scratching all sorts of long-held itches. He wants a military parade on his birthday? He throws one. He wants a Mar-a-Lago-style patio off the Oval Office? He paves over the Rose Garden and builds one. He’s sick and tired of being a pariah in the liberal showbusinessland whence he came? He takes over the Kennedy Center and decides to host an awards ceremony himself.
“Look at the Academy Awards,” he said at one point. “It gets lousy ratings now. It’s all woke. All they do is talk about how much they hate Trump, but nobody likes that. They don’t watch anymore.” He talked repeatedly about the ratings he got when he hosted “The Apprentice.”
“I shouldn’t make this political,” he said at another point, “because they made the Academy Awards political, and they went down the tubes.”
Behind him were a series of easel-like stands, covered in red fabric. Two women in very high heels traipsed from stand to stand, Vanna White style, yanking off the fabric to show the faces of celebrity honorees. Each was picked by the president. “I was about 98 percent involved,” Mr. Trump said. “They all went through me.”
He added that he “turned down plenty” because “they were too woke. I had a couple of wokesters.”
The faces of the sufficiently unwoke were revealed.
Among them were the men of Kiss, the glam rock metal band known for the way the members do their makeup. “They made a fortune, and they’re great people, and they deserve it,” Mr. Trump said.
There was also Gloria Gaynor, a disco queen who sang “I Will Survive,” widely considered to be one of the most popular gay anthems of all time. “I will say, ‘I Will Survive’ is an unbelievable song,” Mr. Trump said. “I’ve heard it, you know, like everyone else here, thousands of times, and it’s one of those few that gets better every time you hear it.”
Sylvester Stallone’s mug was up there, too. Mr. Trump recalled the first time he saw the first “Rambo” movie, which came out in 1982. “I’ll never forget, I was a young guy, and I went to see a thing called ‘Rambo,’” he said. “It had just come out and I didn’t know anything about it. I was in a movie theater. We used to go to movie theaters a lot … .”
He referred to Mr. Stallone as “Sly” and called him a “legend of the silver screen.”
This was Mr. Trump’s third visit to the Kennedy Center since he took over in February. His second visit was in June, when he showed up to see a performance of one of his favorite plays, “Les Misérables.” He said he had a great time.
The first time he dropped by since taking over was in March, when he took a tour of the center and met with the new members of the board whom he had appointed. That day he told them that when he was a child he had shown a special aptitude for music. And he reminisced about going to see the premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats” on Broadway in the early 1980s. “They were treating me good because I was a young star, for whatever reason,” he said then. “This is a crazy life I’ve had.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Shawn McCreesh is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration.
A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 14, 2025, Section A, Page 17 of the New York edition with the headline: Pop Culture Fanatic Relives the Glory Days, With Envy for Rambo and Kiss. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper
See more on: U.S. Politics, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Sylvester Stallone, Donald Trump
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- Chip Industry: From new fees on exports to China to a brief demand for a C.E.O.’s firing, Trump has positioned himself as the semiconductor sector’s leading decision maker.
