Stallone and Gloria Gaynor honored by Donald Trump

Actor Sylvester Stallone, singer Gloria Gaynor and the band Kiss are among the honorees at the annual Kennedy Center Honors ceremony, the first since Donald Trump became president of the Kennedy Center, which awards the awards.

The first group of honorees, which in addition to the 'Rambo' actor (and Trump supporter), the voice of 'I Will Survive' and the rock band, also includes country musician George Strait and actor Michael Crawford, was announced this Wednesday, August 13, by Donald Trump, according to the Associated Press (AP).

The President of the United States became president of the Kennedy Center for the Arts and Culture in February of this year, replacing members of the administration with his supporters.

Additionally, the institution, based in the US capital, canceled a concert with the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, DC, one of the oldest LGBT+ choral organizations in the United States.

This Wednesday, when announcing the Kennedy Center Honorees, Trump said he would "completely renovate" the cultural center's entire infrastructure, making it a "crown jewel" of arts and culture in the United States.

"We're going to take it to a higher level than it's ever been," Donald Trump said, as quoted by the AP, noting that the Kennedy Center will be part of the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the United States, which will be celebrated next year.

On Tuesday, in a post on the TruthSocial network, Donald Trump suggested a name change for the center, formally known as the John F. Kennedy Center of Performing Arts.

"Big nominees for Trump/Kennedy Center awards, oops, I mean, Kennedy Center," he wrote in the post, as cited by the AP, adding that work was being done to "bring [the center] back to an absolute level of luxury, glamour and entertainment."

In March, during a visit to the Kennedy Center, Donald Trump complained that the building was in a state of "enormous disrepair."

In the post shared on Tuesday, he said that the center "has gone through difficult times, physically, but will soon make a great comeback."

It's unclear how this year's Kennedy Center Honors honorees were chosen, although Donald Trump has previously stated he wants to take a more active role in the selections.

Honorees are typically chosen by a bipartisan advisory committee.

The AP reached out to the Kennedy Center for clarification but received no response.

The Kennedy Center Honors have been awarded since 1978. Traditionally, U.S. presidents attend the ceremony, even when they disagree politically with the honorees.

For example, Democrats such as singer Barbra Streisand and actor Warren Beatty were honored during the presidency of Republican George W. Bush, and conservative actor Charlton Heston received the award during the presidency of Democrat Bill Clinton.

In 2017, after screenwriter and television producer Norman Lear refused to attend a White House ceremony in protest of Trump's proposed cuts to arts funding, the President of the United States and his wife, Melania Trump, skipped the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony, and remained so throughout his term.

During this period, among those honored were Trump critics, such as singer Cher, actor and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda and actress Sally Field.

Since taking office for the second time, in January of this year, he has demonstrated a different stance towards the Kennedy Center, having even joined the center's administration.

In the late 1950s, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower supported a Democratic-led congressional bill calling for a "National Cultural Center."

As early as the early 1960s, Democratic President John F. Kennedy launched a fundraising initiative, and his successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, signed a 1964 bill that renamed the project the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, a year after his predecessor's death.

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