President Donald Trump on Saturday evening presented Kennedy Center honorees with freshly designed gold medallions donated by Tiffany & Co. before the Sunday evening program.
Trump, dressed in a tuxedo, led 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. President of the Kennedy Center
President Donald Trump on Saturday evening presented Kennedy Center honorees with freshly designed gold medallions donated by Tiffany & Co. before the Sunday evening program.
was also present.
Gaynor's hit “I Will Survive” was played in the Rose Garden while correspondents waited to enter the Oval Office, the White House press pool said. Kiss' “I Was Made for Lovin' You” and Abba's “The Winner Takes It All” also blasted through the speakers at various points.
“It's an honor to pay tribute to the very best of American art and culture, and that's what you have with me. They are incredible people. I know most of them and have been fans of every one of them,” Trump said.
“This is a group of icons whose work and achievements have inspired, inspired and united millions and millions of Americans. This is perhaps the most accomplished and distinguished class of Kennedy Center honorees ever assembled,” Trump said.
He then presented medals to each member of the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors, in order: Strait, Crawford, Gaynor, Stallone and members of Kiss: Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss and the late Ace Frehley, whose daughter accepted the award on his behalf.
Trump hailed Strait as the “King of Country,” Gaynor as the “First Lady of Disco,” and Crawford as the “Ghost” of Broadway, calling it an ode to his performance in Phantom of the OperaKiss as “the biggest rock 'n' roll band in the world” and Stallone as one of “Hollywood's greatest visionaries.”
The medallions are a new design from Tiffany & Co. as the Kennedy Center moves away from what the White House called the “tacky rainbow medallion designs of the past.”
Later at the Kennedy Center Honors Dinner at the State Department's Benjamin Franklin Ballroom, Trump noted that he would host the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday.
“I will do something that has never been done before: the President of the United States will host at the request of a particular television network,” he said.
