Trump names Strait Stallone and Kiss for Kennedy Centre Honours and says he'll host awards show

Washington, Aug 13 (AP) President Donald Trump on Wednesday named country music star George Strait, “Rocky” actor Sylvester Stallone, singer Gloria Gaynor, the rock band Kiss and actor-singer Michael Crawford among the first batch of Kennedy Centre Honours nominees under his leadership as the centre's chairman and said he'll host the awards program.
    Trump also said he will “fully renovate” the entire infrastructure of the Kennedy Centre to make it a “crown jewel” of arts and culture in the United States.
    “We're going to bring it to a higher level than it ever hit,” the president said, adding the venue would be featured in next year's celebrations of America's 250th anniversary.
    Trump said he didn't want to host the program but was invited to do so and agreed.
    Trump avoided the Kennedy Centre Honours awards program 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 Centre's new chairman and fired the board of trustees, which he replaced with loyalists.
    In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, Trump teased a name change for the centre, formally the John F. Kennedy Centre 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.
    In a statement on its social media feed, the Kennedy Centre said it was “honoured” to host Trump, who was visiting for the third time since January.
    “Thanks to his advocacy, our beautiful building will undergo renovations to restore its prestige and grandeur,” the venue said.
    Trump complained during a March visit that the building is in a state of “tremendous disrepair.”
    It is unclear how this year's honourees 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 Centre press office asking how this year's honourees were selected wasn't returned Tuesday.
    In the past, Trump has floated the idea of granting Kennedy Centre Honours status to singer-songwriter Paul Anka and 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 Centre Honours were established in 1978 and have been given 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 honoured 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 honouree 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 Centre event and remained away throughout his first term. Honourees during that time included such Trump critics as Cher, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Sally Field.
    Since taking office for a second time, Trump has taken a much more forceful stance on the Kennedy Centre and inserted himself into its governance. Besides naming himself chairman and remaking the board, he also has indicated he would take over decisions regarding programming at the centre and vowed to end events featuring performers in drag.
    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 aggressive takeover of the institution's leadership. Other artists who cancelled events include actor Issa Rae, singer Rhiannon Giddens and author Louise Penny.
    House Republicans added an amendment to a spending bill that Trump signed into law in July to rename the Kennedy Centre's Opera House after Melania Trump, but that venue has yet to be renamed. Maria Shriver, a niece of the late President Kennedy, a Democrat, has criticised as “insane” a separate House proposal to rename the entire centre after Trump. (AP)    
GSP

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)