President announces the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors class and states he personally vetoed "woke" candidates

Data/communicationsEOP

Date
Actor
President Trump; The White House; Kennedy Center
Agency
Executive Office of the President (EOP)
Type
Data/communications
Section
SUPPLEMENT: THE KENNEDY CENTER TAKEOVER IS ABSENT FROM THE CULTURAL-INSTITUTIONS RECORD, THOUGH THE SMITHSONIAN, NEA, NEH, IMLS, AND NPS ACTIONS ARE ALL COVERED

Summary

The President announces the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors recipients — George Strait, Michael Crawford, Sylvester Stallone, Gloria Gaynor, and KISS — from the White House, displacing the Center's customary Special Honors Advisory Committee process. He stated he was "98% involved" in selecting the class and had personally rejected candidates he considered too "woke." Kennedy Center staff were reported to have been caught off guard by the announcement. This is the honors-selection analogue of the programming exclusion: the criterion applied is stated to be viewpoint.

Status

Completed; the practice carried into the 2026 cycle (see 2026-02-27).

As recorded in the data of . Check the sources for anything newer.

Sources

Cite this action

Press Release, The White House, President Trump Spotlights 2025 Kennedy Center Honorees: American Icons in Performing Arts (Aug. 13, 2025), https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2025/08/president-trump-spotlights-2025-kennedy-center-honorees/.

Short form: Press Release, The White House, President Trump Spotlights 2025 Kennedy Center Honorees: American Icons in Performing Arts (Aug. 13, 2025), https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2025/08/president-trump-spotlights-2025-kennedy-center-honorees/.