{"id":2191466,"date":"2025-12-08T19:56:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T19:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2191466"},"modified":"2025-12-08T19:56:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T19:56:24","slug":"must-see-moments-from-the-2025-kennedy-center-honors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/must-see-moments-from-the-2025-kennedy-center-honors\/","title":{"rendered":"Must-See Moments From the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Kennedy Center was abuzz on Sunday night for the 48th annual Kennedy Center Honors. President Donald Trump presided over the festivities, which honored actor Sylvester Stallone, 79, Tony Award\u2013winning stage actor Michael Crawford, 83, disco singer Gloria Gaynor, 82, country music artist George Strait, 73, and the rock band Kiss. Trump delighted in his role as the evening\u2019s host, acknowledging the event as \u201cone of the most important evenings in the American cultural realm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u200bWhile some things were different, including a showy new set, redesigned medallions presented to the honorees and the president hosting the event, the general format of the show remained the same. In keeping with tradition, the honorees didn’t know who was going to show up to salute them until showtime. That\u2019s part of the fun, seeing their faces light up when their famous friends step onto the stage. And this year, while Hollywood star power was noticeably dimmed, the audience didn\u2019t seem to mind \u2014 their enthusiasm for Trump was on full display. The gala performance will air at 8 p.m. ET on Dec. 23 on CBS and Paramount+, but in the meantime, here\u2019s what everyone is talking about:<\/p>\n

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President Donald J. Trump hosts the 48th Annual Kennedy Center Honors.<\/p>\n

Mary Kouw\/CBS<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

President Trump shakes things up by hosting<\/h3>\n

\u200bPresident Trump, who did not attend the event during his first term, walked the red carpet with first lady Melania Trump to pose for photos and answer questions prior to the show.<\/p>\n

He kicked things off by being the first person to take to the stage. \u201cThis is the first time a U.S. president has ever hosted this phenomenal event,\u201d said Trump, who was elected as chairman of the Kennedy Center earlier this year. Trump spoke highly of the five honorees, calling them \u201creally amazing people \u2026 personally, I love them all \u2026 and this is a very exciting evening.” \u200bThe president mostly kept the focus on the honorees, touting a $257 million plan to renovate the historic performing arts venue. The Kennedy Center \u201cis going to be bigger and better and more beautiful than ever before,\u201d he said.\u200b<\/p>\n

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Sylvester Stallone, President Donald J. Trump, and First Lady Melania Trump at the 48th Annual Kennedy Center Honors.<\/p>\n

Tracey Salazar\/CBS<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u200b\u200b\u200bSylvester Stallone honored by his brother Frank and actors Kurt Russell and Garrett Hedlund<\/h3>\n

\u200bAfter the president introduced Stallone in a pre-recorded message (as he would all the nominees), Kurt Russell, 74, took to the stage to speak about his friend Stallone<\/a>, his costar in the 1989 action movie Tango & Cash.<\/i> \u201cI wondered out loud, \u2018Where in the hell did they find this boxer who is such a great actor?\u2019\u2009\u201d Russell recalled thinking when he first saw Rocky.<\/i> Reminiscing upon their time working together on a movie set, Russell said that he \u201ctreated me like his little brother. He took care of me.\u201d Calling Stallone an \u201cItalian stallion,\u201d Russell said that \u201cthe story of Sly Stallone is the story of the American Dream.\u201d Stallone\u2019s brother Frank Stallone, 75, also appeared onstage to salute the actor in an emotional tribute. \u201cYou\u2019ll always be my hero, and I love you so much,\u201d said Frank, fighting back tears. \u201cWe went from nowhere to somewhere at the Kennedy Center with the president of the United States, and God has blessed us.\u201d Actor Garrett Hedlund, who costars with Stallone in the TV series Tulsa King,<\/i> said Stallone was \u201ca man who I\u2019ve admired from afar as long as I can remember.\u2026 You are literally a hero, Sly.\u201d He called Stallone a \u201chumble soul who truly cares about everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.aarp.org \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kennedy Center was abuzz on Sunday night for the 48th annual Kennedy Center Honors. President Donald Trump presided over the festivities, which honored actor Sylvester Stallone, 79, Tony Award\u2013winning stage actor Michael Crawford, 83, disco singer Gloria Gaynor, 82, country music artist George Strait, 73, and the rock band Kiss. Trump delighted in his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2191467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[22389,317642,344160,423023,423025,330966,423026,23943,423024],"class_list":["post-2191466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-donald-trump","tag-george-strait","tag-gloria-gaynor","tag-kennedy-center-awards","tag-kennedy-center-awards-on-tv","tag-kennedy-center-honors","tag-kennedy-honors-2025","tag-sylvester-stallone","tag-trump-hosts-kennedy-awards"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Must-See-Moments-From-the-2025-Kennedy-Center-Honors.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2191466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2191468,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191466\/revisions\/2191468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2191467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2191466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2191466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2191466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}