Bucking custom as soon as once more, President Trump on Wednesday introduced his picks for Kennedy Middle Honors and mentioned he’ll host the ceremony himself — a primary for any president. Actor and filmmaker Sylvester Stallone, glam rock band Kiss, disco singer Gloria Gaynor, nation music star George Strait and English actor and comic Michael Crawford made the record.
The Kennedy Middle Honors, which acknowledge lifetime achievement within the performing arts, have been given yearly since 1978 and are the spotlight of the middle’s season every December. The award is taken into account a profession milestone for the performers who obtain it. Previous honorees embrace Leonard Bernstein, Dizzy Gillespie, Lucille Ball, James Brown, Mel Brooks, Paul McCartney and Meryl Streep, amongst others.
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“I wish to congratulate all of the nominees. They’re unbelievable folks, and we’re going to have an incredible day in December,” Trump mentioned in a rambling information convention that started with him unveiling 5 velvet-draped portraits. He went on to say his current deployment of the Nationwide Guard to Washington, D.C., his competition that the 2020 election was stolen, his disdain for Democrats and his upcoming assembly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump mentioned he was “98% concerned” within the collection of the honorees.
“I turned down a lot. That is very totally different than it was; these are nice folks,” Trump mentioned, earlier than including that he didn’t wish to politicize the awards.
The Academy Awards went “woke,” he mentioned, inflicting the ceremony’s rankings to tank.
Some tradition watchers is perhaps shocked by Trump’s decisions, significantly that of Kiss. Trump fired bassist Gene Simmons throughout the first season of “The Superstar Apprentice.” Simmons went on to assist Trump throughout his first time period, however later spoke out sharply in opposition to him in an interview with Spin journal.
Stallone, nonetheless, made sense. He’s one of many actors, alongside Mel Gibson and Jon Voight, that Trump named as “particular ambassadors” to Hollywood. His aim: to deliver the movie business again to Hollywood, “which has misplaced a lot enterprise during the last 4 years to international nations.”
Trump’s announcement, together with his uncommon choice to host, capped a tumultuous seven months on the Kennedy Middle, starting in early February when Trump despatched the humanities world reeling by revealing his intention to nominate himself chairman of the board and terminate members of the board of trustees “who don’t share our Imaginative and prescient for a Golden Age in Arts and Tradition.”
Trump named a former ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, as interim govt director and the middle started shedding marquee names, together with TV producer Shonda Rhimes, musician Ben Folds and opera star Renée Fleming.
Trump’s takeover of the middle got here after he actively shunned it throughout his first time period. In 2017, he and First Woman Melania Trump skipped the Kennedy Middle Honors after being criticized by honorees, marking solely the fourth time within the group’s historical past {that a} president was not in attendance.
Throughout his first go to to the middle as chairman in March, Trump mentioned he didn’t just like the musical “Hamilton,” including that huge Broadway reveals had been going to be the way forward for the middle. He quickly attended a efficiency of “Les Misérables,” famously declining to say whether or not he recognized extra with protagonist Jean Valjean or merciless police inspector Javert.
