Donald Trump announced this year’s batch of Kennedy Center honorees at a press conference on Wednesday, telling reporters he was “very involved” with the selection process.
The president installed himself as chairman of the venerable arts institution in Washington, D.C., in February. The center honors entertainers across the spectrum of performing arts with lifetime achievement awards every year. The first raft of Trump-approved picks included signer Gloria Gaynor, country music legend George Strait, actor Sylvester Stallone and ’70s rock band KISS. The president and avowed Andrew Lloyd Webber fan will also honor Michael Crawford, who played the titular role in “The Phantom of the Opera” when it debuted on Broadway.
Trump told reporters that he rejected would-be honorees who were “too woke.”
‘I would say I was about 98% involved. They all went through me,” he said. “I turned down plenty… I had a couple of wokesters.”
Trump will host the awards ceremony later this year, a role the former game show host said he was strong-armed into by his Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
Do you believe what I have to do? I didn’t want to do it, okay?” he said. “They’re going to say he insisted. I did not insist. But I think it will be quite successful… I used to host the Apprentice finales, and we did rather well with that.”
The president also told reporters that he’d always wanted to be honored by the Kennedy Center, joking that he muscled his way into the institution to bestow the award on himself.
“I would have taken it if they would have called me. I waited and waited, and I said, ‘To hell with it, I’ll become chairman and I’ll give myself an honor,’” he said, “Maybe next year we’ll honor Trump?”
Watch Trump’s announcement below via YouTube:
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