President Donald Trump presented freshly designed gold medallions donated by Tiffany & Co. to Kennedy Center honorees on Saturday night before Sunday night’s event.
Trump, dressed in a tuxedo, held the ceremony in the Oval Office, where honorees including country legend George Strait, Broadway actor Michael Crawford, disco icon Gloria Gaynor, Golden Globe-winning actor Sylvester Stallone and the surviving members of the rock band Kiss were in attendance. Kennedy Center President
President Donald Trump presented freshly designed gold medallions donated by Tiffany & Co. to Kennedy Center honorees on Saturday night before Sunday night’s event.
were also present.
The White House press pool reported that Gaynor’s hit “I Will Survive” was played in the Rose Garden while reporters waited to enter the Oval Office. Kiss’s “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” and Abba’s “The Winner Takes It All” were also played on the speakers at different points.
Trump said, “It is my privilege to pay tribute to the best of American arts and culture, and you join me. They are incredible people. I know most of them and I have admired them all.” Said,
Trump said, “This is a group of icons whose work and achievements have inspired, uplifted and united millions and millions of Americans. This is perhaps the most accomplished and renowned class of Kennedy Center honorees ever.”
He then presented medals to each member of the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors class, in order of Strait, Crawford, Gaynor, Stallone, and the members of Kiss: Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss, and the late Ace Frehley, whose daughter accepted the award on his behalf.
Trump honored Strait as the “King of Country”, Gaynor as the “First Lady” of disco, Crawford as a tribute to her performance as Broadway’s “Phantom”. Phantom of the OperaKiss as rock and roll’s “hottest band in the world”, and Stallone as one of Hollywood’s “greatest visionaries”.
The medal is a new design from Tiffany & Co., as the Kennedy Center moved away from what the White House called “the tacky rainbow sash design of past medals.”
Trump later said at the Kennedy Center Honors Dinner in the State Department’s Benjamin Franklin Ballroom that he would host the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday.
He said, “I would do something that hasn’t been done before: have the President of the United States host at the request of a certain television network.”
