Trump Names His Late-Night Inspiration for Hosting Kennedy Center Honors, Says His Anti-Inspiration Was ‘Terrible’ Jimmy Kimmel

President Donald Trump made history as the first sitting U.S. president to host the Kennedy Center Honors, presiding over the 2025 ceremony in Washington, D.C., while mixing tributes with pointed jabs at late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the Sunday, Dec. 7, event, Trump, 79, said he modeled his approach after classic television icons. Asked how he prepared to host, he replied, “Maybe I haven’t prepared. Maybe you want to be a little bit loose. If you look at the great hosts Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, those are the greats.”

He then pivoted to a familiar target, adding, “You look at the not so greats like Jimmy Kimmel, he was just terrible.”

Onstage during the ceremony, Trump again invoked Carson as a benchmark for his performance. “They say this is the first time that a president of the United States has ever hosted the Kennedy Center Honors … I don’t know why. I am going to try and act like Johnny Carson. I miss Johnny,” he told the audience, according to Deadline.

His criticism of Kimmel came after similar remarks a day earlier, when Trump presented this year’s honorees with their medals during an Oval Office ceremony on Saturday, Dec. 6.

“We have never had a president hosting the awards before. This is the first,” Trump told reporters at that event, per Deadline. “I’m sure they’ll give me great reviews, right? You know, they’ll say, ‘He was horrible. He was terrible. It was a horrible situation.’ No, we’ll do fine.”

Trump went on, “I watched some of the people that host,” before saying, “Jimmy Kimmel was horrible, and some of these people.”

He later added, “If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president.”

Although Trump repeatedly singled Kimmel out, the late-night star has never actually hosted the Kennedy Center Honors. Kimmel did appear at the event in 2012, when he delivered remarks honoring David Letterman.

The two men have traded barbs for months, with Trump frequently targeting Kimmel, one of his most outspoken critics. Their feud intensified when Jimmy Kimmel Live! was suspended for nearly a week in September following comments Kimmel made in a monologue shortly after Charlie Kirk’s death.

This year’s honorees included Sylvester Stallone, George Strait, KISS, Gloria Gaynor and Michael Crawford. Trump has claimed an unusually direct role in shaping the lineup, saying in August that he was “about 98 percent involved” in choosing them after naming himself chairman of the Kennedy Center in February.

The Kennedy Center Honors, held annually at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., recognize artists whose work has made a significant impact on American culture through music, dance, theater, opera, film or television.

Shortly after beginning his second term earlier this year, Trump moved to reshape the institution’s leadership. In February, just weeks after his second inauguration, he removed 18 members of the Kennedy Center board and replaced them with his allies, NPR reported.

On Feb. 12, the newly reconstituted board elected Trump as chairman. Members include Vice President JD Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.

Ahead of the vote, Trump said he wanted the chairmanship “to make sure it runs properly,” and added, “We don’t need woke at the Kennedy Center, and we don’t need — some of the shows were terrible. They were a disgrace that they were even put on.”

When asked by a reporter if he had ever attended a show at the Kennedy Center before this year, Trump answered “no.”

In June, he and first lady Melania Trump attended their first performance there, the opening night of Les Misérables. The couple were met with boos from some members of the audience.

Two months later in August, Trump unveiled the 2025 class of honorees, saying, “They all went through me. I turned down plenty who were too woke.”

In late July, Republicans introduced legislation titled the “Make Entertainment Great Again Act,” which would rename the Kennedy Center as the Donald J. Trump Center for Performing Arts.

Jack Schlossberg, the only grandson of President John F. Kennedy, criticized the proposal on social media, arguing that it runs counter to federal law.

“The Trump Administration stands for freedom of oppression, not expression. He uses his awesome powers to suppress free expression and instill fear. But this isn’t about the arts,” Schlossberg wrote. “Trump is obsessed with being bigger than JFK, with minimizing the many heroes of our past, as if that elevates him. It doesn’t. But there’s hope — art lasts forever, and no one can change what JFK and our shared history stands for.”

Republicans have also floated renaming the Kennedy Center Opera House as the First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.