Overview

• President Trump unveiled this year’s honorees—George Strait, Michael Crawford, Gloria Gaynor, KISS and Sylvester Stallone—at the Kennedy Center and said he will host the December ceremony.
• Congressional Republicans earmarked roughly $257 million for the center’s upgrades in a July spending package contingent on renaming its opera house and are considering a bill to rename the entire complex for Trump.
• Trump’s Truth Social slip—referring to the venue as the “Trump/Kennedy Center”—revived legal and ethical questions about altering a memorial established by Congress.
• The selection process for this year’s honorees remains opaque following Trump’s replacement of the board and firing of the center’s longtime president.
• Artists, staff members and Kennedy family figures, including Jack Schlossberg and Maria Shriver, have criticized the takeover for politicizing the institution and lacking procedural transparency.