The 48th Kennedy Center Honors take place Sunday in Washington, D.C., with President Donald Trump set to host for the first time as a U.S. president. The event will honor Sylvester Stallone, George Strait, KISS, Gloria Gaynor and Michael Crawford and debut newly designed medallions, amid broader changes and political tensions surrounding the institution.
The Kennedy Center Honors, a longstanding Washington tradition celebrating performing arts luminaries, are undergoing notable changes during President Donald Trump’s second term.
In August, the Kennedy Center announced that this year’s honorees are actor and filmmaker Sylvester Stallone, country star George Strait, rock band KISS, disco legend Gloria Gaynor and actor-singer Michael Crawford, according to reporting from NPR and The Daily Wire.
For the first time, Trump will host the televised gala himself "in lieu of a celebrity master of ceremonies," The Daily Wire reports, a departure from past practice in which journalists or entertainers have typically emceed the broadcast. First Lady Melania Trump is also expected to attend, after the couple did not appear at Kennedy Center Honors events during Trump’s first term, when he broke with the tradition of presidents hosting honorees at the White House.
The ceremony is scheduled to air on CBS on December 23, with streaming also available on Paramount+, according to The Daily Wire. It will be taped at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on Sunday.
This year also brings a visible change to one of the Honors’ most iconic symbols. For the first time since 1978, the medallions will not be made by the same family of artists, as first reported by The Washington Post and summarized by NPR. Instead, the new design is by Tiffany & Co. and features a blue ribbon in place of the traditional rainbow one, with rainbow stripes incorporated into the medallion itself.
In keeping with long-standing custom, the Kennedy Center is not revealing the names of the performers who will pay tribute to the honorees, preserving the tradition of surprise tribute performances, NPR notes.
Amid the pageantry, the institution has become a political flashpoint. Trump and Kennedy Center Director Richard Grenell have prioritized overhauling the center’s finances and programming, with Trump boasting at an August press conference that they had "ended the woke political programming," according to NPR’s account of the event.
Those changes have drawn sharp criticism from some Democrats. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island recently alleged that the center was "being looted to the tune of millions of dollars in foregone revenue, cancelled programming, unpaid use of its facilities, and wasteful spending on luxury restaurants and hotels — an unprecedented pattern of self-dealing, favoritism, and waste," as quoted by The Daily Wire.
Kennedy Center Vice President of Public Relations Roma Daravi rejected those claims, telling The Daily Wire: "The press and the Senator should be ashamed of the lies they print and reprint — we want a cultural center for all Americans but they push lies to sow division amongst Americans for their selfish moment in a headline."
Daravi has also used social media to highlight interest in the event from major news organizations. On X on December 4, she wrote that the Associated Press and The New York Times were "scrambling and begging" for Kennedy Center Honors press credentials just days before the show, adding, "The date didn’t sneak up on anyone. They knew it was coming. They just didn’t bother," according to screenshots cited by The Daily Wire.
Questions about who will attend this year’s gala have intensified amid the broader upheaval at the center. NPR reports that former honoree Herbie Hancock, who has been a frequent attendee and consultant during the selection process, will not be there because he is on tour in Asia, according to his spokesperson. Bonnie Raitt, one of last year’s honorees and a past tribute performer, will also be absent.
Despite the controversies, the Kennedy Center Honors remain a high-profile draw. The Daily Wire, citing other media reporting, says expected guests include designer Tommy Hilfiger, actor Kurt Russell and country star Garth Brooks, as well as political figures such as House Speaker Mike Johnson, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. The Kennedy Center has not released a full public guest list.
Performers for Sunday’s show have not been officially announced, in line with the tradition of surprise tributes that has helped make the Honors one of Washington’s most closely watched cultural events.
