Trump announces Kennedy Center Honors lineup with Stallone, KISS and more

The Kennedy Center Honors are heating up this year — and Hollywood celebrities are at the heart of the buzz.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced the stars set to be honored at the highly anticipated ceremony in December. 

The honorees this year are country legend George Strait, Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone, rock band KISS, English actor Michael Crawford and iconic singer Gloria Gaynor, known for her hits, including “I Will Surive” and “The Eye of the Tiger.”

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President Donald Trump speaks during an event at the Kennedy Center on August 13, 2025, in Washington, DC. Trump announced the first honorees of the annual Kennedy Center Honors since taking control of the center’s board earlier this year. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Trump, now chairman of the Kennedy Center, ramps up efforts to reshape the honors program — pushing for a glitzier, star-studded celebration.

“The 48th Kennedy Center Honorees are outstanding people, incredible, we can’t wait… in a few short months since I became chairman of the board, the Kennedy Center, we’ve completely reversed the decline of this cherished national institution,” he said in his speech. 

When reporters asked Trump how involved he was in selecting the 2025 honorees, he didn’t hold back.

“I was about 98% involved… they all came through me,” he said. 

Sylvester Stallone and George Strait will both be honored at the Kennedy Center Honors in December. (Getty Images)

Trump explained he personally greenlit each honoree, and made it known that some didn’t make the cut.

“I turned down plenty, they were too woke… I had a couple of wokesters. No, we have great people. This is very different than it used to be.”

While taking aim at the state of Hollywood awards shows, Trump didn’t miss the chance to swipe at the Oscars.

“Look at the Academy Awards — it gets lousy ratings now, it’s all woke. All they do is talk about how much they hate Trump, but nobody likes that. They don’t watch anymore…”

Trump ended his “very long answer” by saying he “was very involved” in the selection of the Kennedy Center Honorees.

Fans hoping to check out the Kennedy Center website Wednesday afternoon were met with an unexpected message: “You are currently in a temporary waiting room.”

After President Trump revealed the blockbuster list of Kennedy Center Honorees, the Center’s official website was flooded.

“We are experiencing high traffic. You are currently in a temporary waiting room to enter the Kennedy Center website.”

After President Trump revealed the blockbuster list of Kennedy Center Honors honorees, the Center’s official website was flooded. (Fox News)

The waiting room page also explained that the feature was “in place to manage traffic,” and users would be redirected to the main site as demand eased.

At the time of publication, the number of users “in line ahead of you” was listed at more than 300.

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The president previously told Fox News Digital, “The Kennedy Center is coming back. It was not properly taken care of and we are taking it back and we are going to turn it back into something great.” 

President Donald Trump (C) leads a board meeting at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on March 17, 2025 in Washington, DC.  (Getty Images)

Sources told Fox News Digital that the president is committed to revitalizing the Kennedy Center, with some suggesting it should eventually be renamed “the Trump–Kennedy Center.” 

The Kennedy Center has two affiliates — the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera. The new leadership team is currently working on business plans with its affiliates to ensure the Kennedy Center has larger endowments and “greater sustainability.”

Earlier this year, on February 12, Trump appointed himself as chairman of the Kennedy Center and fired multiple board members.

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At the time, he said that he and then-chair David Rubenstein “do not share [the same] Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” according to the announcement on Truth Social.

“Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP,” Trump wrote in the post. 

The opera house in the Kennedy Center is the second-largest theater in the center, with 2,347 seats.

The opera house also serves as the site for the annual Kennedy Center Honors, the nation’s highest award for lifetime achievement in the arts.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.