Sylvester Stallone, Kiss and Gloria Gaynor are among the luminaries being celebrated Sunday at the annual Kennedy Centre Honours, with Donald Trump hosting the show, the first time a president will command the stage instead of sitting in an Opera House box.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has made the John F Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts, which is named after a Democratic predecessor, a touchstone in a broader attack against what he has lambasted as “woke” anti-American culture.
Trump said in August that he had agreed to host the show. The Republican president said on Saturday at a State Department dinner for the honourees that he was doing so “at the request of a certain television network”.
He predicted that the programme, to be broadcast on December 23 on CBS and Paramount+, would have its best ratings ever.
“It’s going to be something that I believe, and I’m going to make a prediction: This will be the highest-rated show that they’ve ever done and they’ve gotten some pretty good ratings, but there’s nothing like what’s going to happen” on Sunday night, Trump said.
Trump is assuming a role that has been held in the past by journalist Walter Cronkite, and comedian and Trump nemesis Stephen Colbert, among others. Before Trump, presidents watched the show alongside the honourees. Trump skipped the honours altogether during his first term.