President Donald Trump is turning one of America’s most prestigious cultural events into a stage for his own political theater — and this time, the cast list says as much about him as it does about the honorees.
On Wednesday, Trump announced the latest Kennedy Center Honors recipients: “Rocky” star Sylvester Stallone, disco icon Gloria Gaynor, country legend George Strait, Broadway star Michael Crawford, and glam rock giants KISS. Traditionally, the Honors are selected by a bipartisan panel of arts leaders. This year, Trump made it clear: he chose them himself — and he rejected anyone he deemed “too woke.”
“I would say I was about 98 percent involved,” Trump boasted. “They all went through me … I turned down plenty. They were too woke. I had a couple of wokesters.”
For critics, it’s a blatant politicization of the arts — part of what they see as Trump’s wider “cultural warfare” against progressive influence in media, universities, and now, the arts. For his supporters, it’s another victory in reclaiming American institutions from what they believe is a decades-long liberal takeover.
A Populist Roster, by Design
Trump’s honorees are household names — larger-than-life personalities with mass-market appeal. Stallone’s Rocky and Rambo roles project toughness and defiance, qualities Trump likes to see in himself. Strait embodies the rural, traditionalist America he courts. Crawford, best known for The Phantom of the Opera, also played P.T. Barnum — the 19th-century showman famous for stunts and blurring truth with spectacle.
Then there’s KISS, whose bombastic performances match Trump’s own flair for showmanship, and Gloria Gaynor, whose anthem “I Will Survive” mirrors his own political resilience through scandal after scandal.
The Politics of Prestige
Presidents usually attend the Honors ceremony, smile for the cameras, and let the arts community make the picks. Trump has done the opposite — personally shaping the guest list and even planning to host the televised gala himself. The move is less about art and more about control.
It’s not happening in isolation. Trump has federalized D.C.’s police, ordered National Guard patrols, pushed for changes to Smithsonian exhibits to align with his political views, and attempted to influence university curricula. To critics, it’s an authoritarian-style effort to dictate what Americans see, learn, and celebrate.
Culture as a Political Weapon
For Trump’s base, this is payback. Many conservatives believe liberal elites have long dominated cultural institutions, shaping national values from Hollywood to Broadway to the NFL. By inserting himself into the Kennedy Center process, Trump signals that those days are over — and that under his leadership, cultural gatekeeping will belong to him.
The risk? Turning a traditionally unifying national celebration into another front in America’s culture wars. Trump himself acknowledged the danger of politicizing the event — before doing exactly that. “They’ll say, ‘Trump made it political,’” he said. “But if we make it our kind of political, we’ll go up.”
Whether this “Kennedy Center coup” boosts his image or alienates undecided voters remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: for Donald Trump, the Honors aren’t just about honoring artists. They’re about cementing his control over the story America tells about itself.