On Sunday night, the President of the United States played emcee for an awards show. He was no Johnny Carson.

In his role as Chairman of the Board of the Kennedy Center, Trump handled hosting duties for the annual Kennedy Center Honors, a lifetime achievement award ceremony for American entertainers. As emcee, Trump took the opportunity to insult his audience in the center’s Opera House (“Many of you are miserable, horrible people”), glorify himself (facetiously calling the once-respected arts institution “the Trump Kennedy Center”), and compare himself favorably to Carson, the legendary late-night host.

Related

Ric Grenell is under Senate investigation for corrupt dealings at the Kennedy Center

“I miss Johnny,” Trump mused.

He wasn’t the only one.

Never Miss a Beat

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

The once-bipartisan event, scheduled for broadcast on CBS later this month, has been consumed by Trump’s ego and his administration’s ugly partisan rhetoric. Both were on display in the lead-up to the ceremony, by dumping the honor’s original medal in favor of a new Trump-approved design.

“Tonight, @POTUS will present medallions to this year’s Kennedy Center Honors recipients — with a new, far more classy design, created and donated by Tiffany & Co. (left). A MASSIVE upgrade from the tacky rainbow sash design of medallions past (right),” read the post from the White House on X.

Now under the direction of Trump-appointed gay envoy Ric Grenell, the Kennedy Center announced in August that it would abandon the iconic rainbow sash created by design legend Ivan Chermeyeff. The sash has been in use since 1978, the inception of the honors during Jimmy Carter’s presidency.

Trump enlisted luxury brand Tiffany to reimagine the award, resulting in a more traditional medallion design. Gone is the distinctive rainbow ribbon with three gold-plated medallions (one bearing the recipient’s name), which differentiated the Kennedy Center award from similar honors.

Now, in its place, a more traditional round medallion (reminiscent of Olympic medals) hangs from a Navy-blue ribbon.

Remarkably, the final design retains a rainbow element, in thin stripes embracing an etched drawing of the Kennedy Center building and continuing Chermeyeff’s original reference in 1978 to the award acknowledging the “full spectrum” of the arts.

By coincidence, the rainbow Pride flag, designed by Gilbert Baker, made its very first appearance at the 1978 San Francisco Pride, the same year the Kennedy Center Honors debuted. Why Trump decided to keep the rainbow iconography, which his administration has bulldozed almost everything associated with LGBTQ+ rights, is a mystery.

Maybe it’s one fight he didn’t want to pick — as Kennedy Center ticket sales have plunged on his watch, and the center’s executive director (Grenell) is consumed by accusations of corruption and mismanagement.

Or maybe Trump just wanted to keep the focus on himself.

Asked on the red carpet before the show how past presidents might have handled hosting duties, Trump replied, “I would say the last one would not have done too well.”

He added, “John F. Kennedy would have done a very good job — mostly.”

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.