- 7 months ago
President Trump reveals this year's Kennedy Center honorees.
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00:00Thank you very much. This is a very exciting project. We're going to do something that will go rapidly, relatively inexpensively, and will make it better than it ever was, frankly. It'll be something that people are going to be very proud of, along with in the bigger picture, a place called Washington, D.C. That is the bigger one, and we'll talk about that in a little while.
00:27But let's talk about, right now, the Kennedy Center, and I'm delighted to be here as we officially announce the incredibly talented artists who will be celebrated later this year at the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors. It's going to be a big evening.
00:46I've been asked to host. I said, I'm the president of the United States. Are you fools asking me to do that? Sir, you'll get much higher ratings. I said, I don't care. I'm president of the United States. I won't do it.
01:00They said, please. And then Susie Wells said to me, sir, I'll get a host. I said, okay, Susie, I'll do it. That's the power she's got.
01:10But I just, so I have agreed to host. Do you believe what I have to do? And I didn't want to do it, okay? They're going to say he insisted. I did not insist.
01:20But I think it will be quite successful, actually. It's been a long time. I used to host the Apprentice finales, and we did rather well with that.
01:29So I think we're going to do very well, because we have some great honorees, some really great ones.
01:33Since 1978, the Kennedy Center Honors have been among the most prestigious awards in the performing arts.
01:40I wanted one. I was never able to get one.
01:42This year, it's true, actually. I would have taken it if they would have called me.
01:47I waited and waited and waited, and I said, the hell with it. I'll become chairman, and I'll give myself an honor.
01:53Maybe I'm going to honor, next year we'll honor Trump, okay?
01:57This year, the board has selected a truly exceptional class of honorees. I mean, really exceptional.
02:04First is country music star, actor, and producer, George Strait.
02:12Great.
02:18Over an extraordinary four-decade career, George has sold more than 120 million records worldwide, amassed 60 number-one hits, wow, and produced 33 platinum-certified albums, more than any other living American.
02:35That is amazing.
02:36He's believed by millions of people to just be as good as you can get, and he's beloved by hundreds of millions of people all over the world.
02:49He's really something, and they call him the king of country, and we know him very well, George Strait.
03:02Oh, and it looks nice.
03:04You're a good-looking guy.
03:06I hope he still looks like that.
03:07Second is actor, singer, philanthropist, and star of the Broadway stage, one of my favorite talents.
03:19I think he's one of the greatest talents I've ever actually seen.
03:23I've always said, and just so we don't get in trouble, I'll say among, but among the greatest artists in the world are the Broadway London actors back and forth.
03:32That's all they want to do is they want to do Broadway, and they want to do London.
03:36They want to do eight shows a week, including matinee on Wednesday, and if you said make a movie, they can't even think about it.
03:44If you say go on television, they don't want it.
03:46All they want to do is be on the stage, the live stage, and it's amazing, but I've always said that the most talented people, and this man may be the most of all, Michael Crawford is being honored.
03:58Michael was born in England in 1942.
04:07He made his Broadway debut in 1967.
04:12I was there.
04:14I shouldn't say that, but I was there.
04:17Seems like a long time ago.
04:19Michael, and he became an international sensation in the 1980s for his original portrayal of the phantom of the opera, one of the greatest ever, ever, ever, ever.
04:31You don't see him like that very often.
04:35Winning him the esteemed Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
04:39He's won so many awards.
04:41Michael is truly a generational talent, had a voice that was unbelievable.
04:48It was unbelievable.
04:49There's never, I don't know, it's, Luciano Pavarotti had a very different voice.
04:54The power was incredible, magnificent.
04:56Michael had a different kind of a voice.
04:59These are just unbelievable talents.
05:01But Michael is very special and one of the greatest roles in the history of Broadway, and nobody did it like him.
05:12Michael Crawford, thank you very much.
05:16Great guy.
05:16Thank you very much.
05:46A real talent, never been given the credit for the talent.
05:52There was nobody else could have done the roles that he did like he did.
05:55I'm not even close, and they've tried, and they didn't work out too well.
05:58His name is Sylvester Stallone.
06:01So, it's very few, almost, if any, people that could have taken a name and made it so incredible, like Rocky, Rambo, Creed, and others.
06:24But think of it, Rocky, Rambo.
06:26If you did one, you're good.
06:27You do two.
06:29And I'll never forget, I was a young guy, and I went to see a thing called Rambo, and it had just come out.
06:36I didn't know anything about it.
06:38But I got, I was in a movie theater.
06:40Like, we used to go to movie theaters a lot.
06:42And I said, this movie is phenomenal.
06:45What the heck?
06:47And that turned out to be a monster.
06:49Rocky is Rocky.
06:50I mean, the way that happened, you know, Sly had no money, nothing.
06:56And he went around, and everybody wants to do a boxing movie.
06:59It's the most, you know, probably more than any other type of character, boxing.
07:03Boxing.
07:03Always boxing.
07:04It's so great.
07:05And there's rarely been anything like this one.
07:11John Voight did a great one, as you know.
07:13Champ, great.
07:16I think that was right there, too.
07:19John Voight's a phenomenal person, phenomenal actor.
07:22But Sly came in, and he had no money.
07:26He wrote a script, along with thousands of other people writing scripts on a boxer.
07:30And for some reason, a studio picked up this, and liked it.
07:37And Sly had, he's in an old car that he came in from Brooklyn, or someplace in New York,
07:45but I think Brooklyn.
07:46It barely made it to California.
07:48He was sleeping in the car.
07:49I mean, he had nothing.
07:52And he wanted control over who the actor was going to be, because he said, it can't be successful
07:58if you're going to pick a movie actor with a bad build, okay?
08:02A nice face, but a bad body.
08:05And he said, I can't have these guys, because he's a tough cookie, and he knew exactly what it took.
08:10He knew what a boxer's body was.
08:14So they brought him one, and I won't tell you who it was, but it was a big name.
08:19But the chest wasn't exactly what you need.
08:22One shot, and your heart would pop out.
08:26That wasn't too good.
08:27But then he did another one.
08:28He was fat, sloppy, but had a good face.
08:32Then he did another one, and another one, and another one.
08:37And he turned it down.
08:38He wouldn't take one million dollars.
08:40He wouldn't do it.
08:42And it turned out that when they saw him, they said, you know, you'd be actually pretty good
08:46for this role.
08:48And he had never done this before, anything like it.
08:51But think of it.
08:52He turned down a million dollars.
08:54He had nothing.
08:54He refused to let somebody else play.
08:57He didn't want to play it.
08:58He wasn't originally.
08:59He did it as a writer.
09:00But he ended up playing it because he couldn't find anybody else that fit the role.
09:05And who knew what would have happened?
09:08He's become a legend of the silver screen, a true legend.
09:14And he's a great guy.
09:15He's a little bit tough, a little bit different, I will tell you.
09:18He's a little tough guy.
09:18But he's a phenomenal person with a phenomenal wife and family, incredible wife, incredible
09:26family.
09:27His films are grossing more than $7.5 billion, which is either a record or very close to it.
09:34I can't imagine anybody doing more.
09:35If you add up Rambo and Rocky and these others, I can't imagine anybody doing much more.
09:40$7.5 billion worldwide over the course of six decades.
09:46And Sly is a pillar of the really American pop culture and a Hollywood superstar, like
09:54few others.
09:55And one of the biggest names on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in fact, the only one that's
10:02a bigger name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, they say, is a guy named Donald Trump.
10:07I'm on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, too, if you can believe that one.
10:11But he's amazing.
10:13He's really amazing.
10:14And he's actually a great actor.
10:17Fourth, we'll be together celebrating one of the most revered singers of the American
10:24Disco Era, Gloria Gaynor.
10:31Best known for her chart-topping 1978 hit, I Will Survive.
10:38Gloria won the 1980 Grammy for Best Disco Recording, and her song was inducted into the
10:46National Recording Registry in 2016.
10:49Four decades later, Gloria won a second Grammy in 2020 for her
10:54gospel album testimony, which is incredible, truly a historic achievement, not only in
11:01times of the, not only in terms of the years that have gone by to be great that long, but
11:07to have the two-top, two-top of anything in that span of time and with that kind of period
11:15between is pretty amazing.
11:17But I will say that I Will Survive is an unbelievable song.
11:24I've heard it, you know, like everyone else here thousands of times.
11:29And it's one of those few that get better every time you hear it.
11:33And nobody can sing it like her.
11:35And that's an honor.
11:37So, Gloria Gaynor, thank you.
11:40Thank you very much.
11:43And finally, we'll be honoring one of the greatest rock bands of all time, KISS.
11:49So, KISS was formed in 1973 in New York City by founding band members, and incredible people,
12:02by the way, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Fraley, and Peter Criss.
12:09KISS became a global phenomenon, sold more than 100 million records worldwide, and produced
12:1730 gold albums, and lots of other things they produced.
12:21They made a fortune.
12:23And they're great people, and they deserve it, and they work hard, and they're still working
12:27hard, and it's an honor to present KISS.
12:33Thank you very much.
12:35Got it?
12:35Yeah.
12:39And they're going to do something very special.
12:42KISS is going to be here a little bit before the show.
12:47I think they're going to do something very special.
12:49We're going to have a good time.
12:51The 48th Kennedy Center honorees are outstanding people, an outstanding group, incredible.
12:58We can't wait to celebrate the Kennedy Center honors.
13:04It'll be in December.
13:05It'll be on CBS in a few short months since I became chairman of the board, the Kennedy Center.
13:12We have completely reversed the decline of this cherished national institution.
13:18It was being run down.
13:22Money wasn't being spent properly.
13:24They were building things they shouldn't have built that nobody wanted instead of taking
13:28care of the great gem that it is.
13:30You look at the marble.
13:31Look at the quality of the marble and the things that, with a little fix-up and a little
13:35work, we can make it unbelievable.
13:37These columns, when you see them the next time, they'll be magnificent.
13:42I mean, we have some great plans for this.
13:44The bones are so good.
13:46The bones of a building.
13:47If you don't have the bones, you might as well forget it.
13:51I'm working in another building, I think, called the White House.
13:54We're fixing it up so beautifully.
13:55It needed it.
13:57It's been many, many years since it's been properly taken care of.
14:00It's incredible.
14:01One of the great places of the world.
14:02Maybe, I mean, truly, to me, is there anything else even close?
14:07But we're doing that and doing some other things.
14:11And we're going to also fix up a place called Washington, D.C.
14:14We're going to make it so beautiful again.
14:16We're going to be redoing the parks, redoing the grass.
14:19You know, grass is a lifetime like people have a lifetime.
14:23And the lifetime of this grass has long been gone.
14:26When you look at the parks where the grass is all tired, exhausted, we're going to redo
14:33the grass with the finest grasses.
14:37I know a lot about grass because I own a lot of golf courses.
14:40And if you don't have good grass, you're not in business.
14:42Very long, Lindsey Graham.
14:44And by the way, you have very good poll numbers, Lindsey.
14:46I just saw it.
14:46Congratulations.
14:50But a few short months ago, I became chairman of the Kennedy Center.
14:55And we completely reversed it.
14:57We reversed what was happening.
14:59We ended the woke political programming.
15:03And we're restoring the Kennedy Center as the premier venue for performing arts anywhere
15:07in the country, anywhere in the world.
15:09This has the potential to be anywhere in the world.
15:11We're going to make it something that people can't even believe.
15:15We have some unbelievable plans.
15:16And ultimately, it's about the talent you get, though.
15:19You know, you can have a beautiful, you can have a beautiful building.
15:22You can have nice marble walls.
15:24You can have nicely done columns, as I was saying.
15:27But if you don't have the talent on the stage, then we're going to get the best talent in
15:31the world.
15:32To that end, the world-renowned musical Les Mis had a phenomenal five-week sold-out run
15:37this summer, beat projected revenues by 35 percent.
15:41And we've raised over $10 million in private funds from a lot of generous donors.
15:47And we closed the $26 million budget shortfall that they had for before we got here.
15:55And with the help of Congress, we secured the critical funding necessary to rebuild the
16:01building.
16:02And we're going to get all brand-new, highest-level seats, magnificent seats.
16:07And it's going to be all-new.
16:09We could have taken the existing ones and do a little paint job, a little fabric, but
16:14it's not the same thing.
16:16So we'll be taken out next season.
16:18All of the seats will be taken out.
16:22The room is being completely rebuilt.
16:25And I just want to thank the Republicans in the Senate, headed by Lindsay in that case.
16:30Lindsay was very much, she's a big fan of this building.
16:33And they got a record $257 million that's going to go toward renovations that the building
16:42really needs.
16:43And all of the exterior is going to be incredible.
16:45It's going to be exciting.
16:47So I thank you very much.
16:48And thank all of your Republican senators.
16:50I don't think we had too many Democrat votes, probably.
16:52You never have.
16:53We don't have Democrats voting even for crime.
16:56But I shouldn't make this political because they made the Academy Awards political and
17:00they went down the tubes.
17:02So they'll say, Trump made it political.
17:04But I think if we make it our kind of political, we'll go up, okay?
17:07Let's see if I'm right about that.
17:10But I want to thank the executive director for an incredible job.
17:13He's done great.
17:15He's been with me for just about the beginning.
17:17And everything he's touched has been good.
17:20He was on high intelligence.
17:22He worked in low intelligence and high intelligence.
17:25He did better with the high intelligent people.
17:28But he's been fantastic.
17:30He's the executive director, Rick Grinnell, for his work.
17:33Thank you very much, Rick.
17:34Unbelievable job.
17:40And as well as Lindsay and all the people that helped us in Congress, I want to thank.
17:44And the Senate has been incredible.
17:48By the way, Leader Thune has been unbelievable.
17:52And Speaker Mike Johnson, these are great people.
17:58What we're doing with the great, big, beautiful bill is you're going to see a whole different country.
18:03You're seeing it already.
18:04We're coming in where trillions of dollars is coming in from tariffs from all over the world,
18:10from countries that took advantage of our country.
18:13They were they thought we were children.
18:16They took advantage of us for decades.
18:18And now the money is flowing to us.
18:21And we have we've become the hottest country anywhere in the world.
18:25But the Kennedy Center board members, many of whom I knew and many of whom I put on the board.
18:31And it's an outstanding, it's as good a board as I've ever seen.
18:37And on the board also and some people that are doing an incredible job.
18:41One in particular is Attorney General Pam Bondi.
18:44The job she's doing is incredible.
18:46Thank you very much.
18:47Long beyond the Kennedy Center.
18:49The Kennedy Center is the easy part.
18:52She's incredible.
18:53And she's you're going to see a big change in Washington crime stats very soon.
18:57Not the stats that they gave because they turned out to be a total fraud.
19:01The real stats, the stats went through the roof.
19:03You know, they had a man that was forced to put up stats like they were doing better.
19:07They're not doing better.
19:08Crime is the worst it's ever been.
19:09But it's it started as of about yesterday.
19:13It started to you see a big change and people are feeling safe already.
19:17I have it.
19:17So many calls.
19:18Thank you, sir.
19:20They were afraid to walk out.
19:21They're not afraid anymore.
19:24And this will get this will be like the border.
19:26We started off with millions and millions of people coming in from all over the world.
19:30Gang members and people from jails.
19:32They were unloading their jails into our country all over the world.
19:36They were coming drug dealers.
19:39They came from Africa.
19:40They came from Asia.
19:42They came from South America, Venezuela in particular.
19:44They were coming in.
19:45Trin de Aragua and the toughest people you've ever seen.
19:52And by the millions.
19:55And for the last three months, we had zero, zero and zero.
19:59We had zero people come in for three months.
20:02They respect our country again.
20:04And that's the other thing.
20:05All over the world, our country is respected again.
20:08So I also want to thank the chief of staff, Susie Wiles, who's fantastic.
20:13She's done an incredible job.
20:14And Sergio Gore for the job he's done with personnel.
20:20Thank you very much, Sergio.
20:22Fantastic.
20:23In the coming months, we'll fully renovate the dated and really the entire infrastructure
20:30of the building and make the Kennedy Center a crown jewel of American arts and culture
20:37once again.
20:38I think we'll bring it to a higher level than it ever hit.
20:40Actually, it hit a certain level, but we're going to bring it to a higher level than it
20:44ever hit.
20:45We have the right location.
20:48And soon we will be a crime free area.
20:51This is going to be a crime free area, by the way.
20:54You'll be able to go out.
20:55People tell me they can't run anymore.
20:56They're just afraid.
20:58And they'll be running again.
20:59We're going to have a crime free.
21:01It's a big statement because you'll if one thing happens all year, Pam, you better be good
21:06because they'll say Trump did not fulfill this.
21:08One person gets a little injured by somebody.
21:12They'll say Trump did not fulfill his promise.
21:14No, we're going to be essentially crime free.
21:17This is going to be a beacon.
21:20And it's going to also serve as an example of what can be done.
21:25We have to get rid of this cashless bail nonsense.
21:28If you look at New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, which is so badly run.
21:34Los Angeles, they can't get the houses.
21:35They can't get the people their permits to build their houses.
21:38They're trying to rebuild the houses from the ridiculous fire that should have never allowed
21:42to have taken place.
21:44They should have had the water coming down from the Pacific Northwest.
21:47But they didn't do that.
21:48But they can't get the permits for the people.
21:51They want to build their houses.
21:53But I want to thank Lee Zeldin because the federal government has gotten all of their permits,
21:58which are much more difficult permits, actually, and had them literally within 30 days after
22:03the fire.
22:04Everybody had their permit.
22:06But you don't have the city and state permits.
22:08They got to get going.
22:09The governor and the mayor have to get going.
22:11It will just be a matter of time that we're going to do something that's going to be incredible.
22:18We're going to use the Kennedy Center as a big focus of it.
22:21And that's the 250th anniversary celebration that we're having.
22:25So it's 250 years.
22:27So we have the Olympics.
22:30We have the World Cup.
22:32And we have the 250th anniversary celebration all in this administration.
22:38And it's an honor that we were able to not be allowed to do what we were illegally and what
22:47we were supposed to do.
22:49And that was we we had a great election in 2020.
22:52We won the election by a lot.
22:55But it was a rigged election.
22:57And we had to wait four years.
22:59And we waited four years.
23:00And it's interesting because I got the Olympics and I got the World Cup.
23:03I can't claim that I got the 250th.
23:05That one's a big one.
23:06But I happen to be here.
23:08But but I got the Olympics.
23:10I got the World Cup.
23:11And I said, the shame of it is that I'm not going to be president when it happens.
23:16And lo and behold, look what happens.
23:18We have some bad things took place.
23:21And now I'm going to be president for the Olympics.
23:24I'll be president for the World Cup.
23:26And the 250th is going to be maybe more exciting than both.
23:30It's a great celebration of our country.
23:32We're going to be using this building for a lot of the celebration having to do with 250 years.
23:39But as I said earlier, I'm determined to make Washington, D.C. safe, clean and beautiful again.
23:44It's going to take place very rapidly.
23:46Be prepared.
23:46And a big part of that's going to include the Kennedy Center.
23:51So thank you very much.
23:53And I want to thank everybody for helping us.
23:56This is mostly the group right here.
23:58That's they're young.
23:59They're smart.
24:01They're ambitious.
24:02They want my job.
24:03One of them will probably have it.
24:05But we have a great group of people that are putting this together.
24:09And they're also helping us with Washington, D.C.
24:11We're going to make Washington beautiful.
24:14We're going to redo roads.
24:15We're going to redo the medians, the pavers, and the medians all throughout the city.
24:20We're going to take all the graffiti off.
24:22We're going to have to remove the tents and the people that are living in our parks.
24:27We're going to be redoing the parks, the grasses and all.
24:30We're going to be going to Congress for a relatively small amount of money.
24:34And Lindsay and the Republicans are going to be approving it.
24:38I don't know about the Democrats.
24:39They don't approve anything.
24:41It's amazing.
24:42It's like they just don't want to vote for anything.
24:45They've got the yips.
24:46You know, in golf, they say the yips.
24:48The Democrats are afraid to do anything because they don't want to be criticized.
24:52But fighting crime is a good thing.
24:53We have to explain.
24:54We're going to fight crime.
24:56That's a good thing.
24:57Already they're saying he's a dictator.
24:59The place is going to hell.
25:02We've got to stop it.
25:04So instead of saying he's a dictator, they should say we're going to join him and make Washington safe.
25:09But he's a dictator.
25:14And then they end up getting mugged.
25:16But the stats are very bad.
25:18But we're going to I think we'll actually get Democrat support.
25:23I really believe they can't do this one, too.
25:25It's you know, they talk about 80 20s, 80 20 issues.
25:30But I think many of those 80 20 issues like men and women's sports, I think it's 97 to 3, not 80 20.
25:36And I think crime is maybe 100 to nothing.
25:39So I think we may get very well some Democrat support.
25:42But I hope so.
25:43But even if we don't, we have the majority.
25:44So we're going to vote it in as Republicans and we're going to do something.
25:48And that's going to serve as a beacon for New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other places all over the country.
25:55This whole our whole country is going to be so different and so great.
26:00It's going to be clean and safe and beautiful.
26:02And people are going to love our flag more than they've ever loved it.
26:07And we're going to do a great job.
26:08So I want to congratulate all the nominees.
26:11They're unbelievable people.
26:13And we're going to have a tremendous day in December.
26:17And that evening is going to be special.
26:20Some really special people and real talent.
26:24Do you have any questions?
26:25Do you have any questions?
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