Donald Trump Slams ‘Miserable, Horrible People’ in Audience While Hosting Kennedy Center Honors

President Donald Trump presided over the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors, presenting five awards to artists from the worlds of music, film and theater.

Speaking to the crowd at the Sunday, Dec. 7 event, the 79-year-old president praised the honorees’ “persistence,” while also taking a swipe at some in the audience, joking that many of them were “miserable, horrible people.”

Returning to the theme of perseverance, Trump said the artists’ refusal to quit reflects a deep commitment to excellence in their work. He noted that they had weathered “great odds” and “tremendous setbacks,” likening their resilience to the spirit of Rocky Balboa and saying they had kept pushing forward despite public scrutiny.

This year’s honorees — Sylvester Stallone, George Strait, KISS, Gloria Gaynor and Michael Crawford — were selected by the Kennedy Center Board. Trump has previously claimed he was “about 98 percent involved” in choosing the recipients after installing himself as chairman of the Kennedy Center in February.

The Kennedy Center Honors, held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., is an annual celebration of artists whose work has significantly shaped American culture through music, dance, theater, opera, film and television.

Shortly after beginning his second term in office earlier this year, Trump moved quickly to rework the institution. In February, just weeks after his second inauguration, he dismissed 18 members of the Kennedy Center’s board and replaced them with allies, according to NPR.

The newly configured board — which includes Vice President JD Vance’s wife Usha Vance and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles — then elected Trump chairman on Feb. 12.

In the days leading up to that vote, Trump said he wanted the chairmanship “to make sure [the center] runs properly,” arguing that the venue did not need “woke” programming and blasting some past productions as “a disgrace” that never should have been staged.

During his Sunday remarks, Trump pointed to his work as chairman and promised that the Kennedy Center would be “bigger and better and more beautiful than ever before.” He told attendees they would see the transformation “taking place before your very eyes,” boasting that more than $100 million had been raised in the previous month — a figure he claimed far surpassed past efforts.

Trump had previously admitted that he had not attended a show at the Kennedy Center before assuming the chairmanship.

In June, he and first lady Melania Trump went to their first performance there, attending the opening night of Les Misérables. The couple was greeted with boos from some in the crowd.

Two months later, in August, Trump announced the 2025 class of honorees, saying all of the selections came across his desk and that he had rejected several candidates he considered “too woke.”

In late July, Republican lawmakers introduced a bill dubbed the “Make Entertainment Great Again Act,” proposing to rename the Kennedy Center as the Donald J. Trump Center for the Performing Arts.

Jack Schlossberg, the only grandson of President John F. Kennedy, criticized the idea on social media, arguing that the move would conflict with federal law and accusing the Trump administration of standing for “freedom of oppression, not expression.” He said Trump seemed fixated on overshadowing JFK and diminishing past heroes, but insisted that art endures and that no one can change what Kennedy and U.S. history represent.

Republicans have also floated a separate proposal to rename the Kennedy Center Opera House as the First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.