Overview

• President Trump unveiled five honorees—country star George Strait, actor Sylvester Stallone, disco icon Gloria Gaynor, rock band KISS and actor Michael Crawford—personally announcing their selection.
• He said he was “98%” involved in the choices and confirmed he will host the awards in December, to be broadcast on CBS.
• The announcement follows his February purge of the Kennedy Center board and proposals to rename its Opera House for First Lady Melania.
• Civil-society groups like PEN America and the American Historical Association warned that the White House’s cultural interventions risk politicizing museums and historical programming.
• By honoring widely popular non-‘woke’ figures and centralizing presidential spectacle, the administration underscores its broader effort to remove progressive influence from national cultural institutions.