President Trump and the First Lady Arrive at the Kennedy Center Honors

Mr. President, one of the most prestigious nights in American arts, you are hosting tonight for the first time as President. What does this night mean to you as Chairman of the Kennedy Center?

Well it's very exciting, being Chairman, but maybe more importantly saving this incredible structure and building and concept. It's done so well, we've raised tremendous amounts of money tonight for the building itself. We're very, very happy, but we're really happy with the Kennedy Center. We just like the way it's been going lately, like it's never been before. And this building, this beautiful building, is starting to be brought back to life, it's already started, and it'll be better than it was from day one.

The Night’s Honors represent the storytelling of American life, what do these honorees tonight mean to you?

Well, we've got great honorees, a group that is really unique and we love them all. Over the years I've been watching Kennedy Center, and we have five wonderful honorees, but I think this is a year that's very much unparalleled. So we'll see how it turns out. I think it's going to be a big evening.

First Lady Melania, may I ask you about your upcoming video? Can you tell us anything about that?

Melania will release on January 30th. So, we've been starting this film over eight months, and seeing it, it's 20 days in my life before the celebration.

We're looking forward to that. And what an exciting night, you have celebrated the arts all of your life and they've been a part of your journey, tell us what tonight means to you.

Well, it means we're bringing it back to the capital, Washington D.C. You look back a year ago, it was a very unsafe place. Beautiful but unsafe, but it wasn't properly kept, it was not in good condition. Now it's in very good condition, and as you know, crime has gone down to a level we haven't seen in years, so we're very proud. Thank you very much.

President Trump, NBC Senator, Mr. President, do you think this center will eventually be renamed after you, Trump Center?

I don't know. I hear that, but I don't know. That's not up to me, that's up to the board. The board makes those decisions, they have a very prestigious board and you look at the names, I don't think there's a board like it. So that would be up to the board. Thank you.

What about the Supreme Court?

Well I think maybe not tonight, this is about the Kennedy Center. Thank you.

What about the Netflix-Warner deal?

Well that's got to go through a process and we'll see what happens. Netflix is a great company, they've done a phenomenal job, Ted is a fantastic man, I have a lot of respect for him, but it's a lot of market share. So we'll have to see what happens.

President Trump, who’s on your Christmas list?

Well I looked at a list today, I can't tell you that yet, but a lot of people want to be on my list. You'd like to be on the list.

I don't know about that. I have a question for you Mr. President, how have you prepared to host tonight?

Well maybe I haven't prepared, maybe you want to be a little bit loose. If you look at the great hosts, Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, those are the greats. If you look at the not-so-greats, like Jimmy Kimmel who's just terrible. But no, I think you want to be just loose, not a lot to prepare for really. You know you have to be, you have to be yourself. I've been asking your cabinet tonight, is this going to be more Johnny Carson or Don Rickles? Well Don, I knew Bob and they were both great guys and friends of mine. Both difficult, very different, but great, and I was really very close to both of them. They were, you can't compare them, they were very different. But Johnny Carson for hosting was top of the line.

President Trump, Jesse Watters has a question for you. What was your favorite moment of 2025? It's a big year.

I think when Jesse Watters interviewed me. Such a phenomenal interview. He's a great guy, and you're a great guy, you're doing a very good job out there. I'm proud of you.

Thank you so much Mr. President. Who is on your naughty list this year?

Oh that's a long list. I'd better not tell you, we'd start a problem out there in the world. No, we have a pretty big naughty list, but our country is doing well, we're the hottest country anywhere in the world right now. And a year ago we were a dead country, we were a dead country that was laughed at all over the world. Now we're the hottest country in the world.

And Jesse Watters is terrific. And what are you doing for education Mr. President of the Supreme Court overturning your authority on international tariffs emergency authority, what would be the implications for the economy of this country?

Well we have a right to go a different form of tariffs, we have a right to go licensing, we have a right to go other ways. But the form of tariffing, as we call it, the form of the current form of tariffing that's before the court gives us a great national security, more than anything else because it allows the President to act quickly and effectively, swiftly, and make a decision. And as you know, I ended eight wars, we're trying to end the ninth, we thought this would be maybe one of the easier ones, it just didn't, Rwanda and Congo, and that was going on for 30 years. The Russia-Ukraine, I thought it was going to be a little bit easier, but it's not being made easy. It's a very tough war, a very nasty, 27,000 people died last month, mostly soldiers. I will say that overall I really think this is really a night of joy tonight because of what's happening with this building. It's going to be fantastic when you see the end product, it's going to be better than it was new. And I think we'll celebrate that, but I will say that our country is doing really well.

President Trump, some have expressed concern about using the tariffs to put revenue for a dividend, saying we should be paying down the national debt.

Well we will, I agree with that, but I also think that you know we're making so much money with tariffs that we'll also be able to make a nice dividend for middle-income people. We're talking about middle-income and lower-income people. We're not talking about dividends to rich people. But there's so much money being made from the tariffs that countries that were taking advantage of us for many, many years are not taking advantage of us anymore. We're taking in tremendous amounts of money from countries where we were losing lots of money to. And you know what? They're okay with it, they're not complaining, they're not complaining about the tariffs, they'd rather not have them, but they're not saying there's anything wrong. And the big thing is in the court, we have tremendous flexibility with the current system. It's unbelievable for national security. I've ended eight wars largely because of trade and because of tariffs. If we go the other tariff route, and there are other routes we can go, but it won't give you the same pure national security as this one. This one is swift and very powerful.

Mr. President, what's the next step in Russia-Ukraine talks? What's your next step?

So we've been speaking to President Putin and we've been speaking to Ukrainian leaders, including Zelenskyy, President Zelenskyy. And I have to say that I'm a little bit disappointed that President Zelenskyy hasn't yet read the proposal, that was as of a few hours ago. His people love it, but he hasn't. Russia's fine with it, Russia's you know Russia I guess would rather have the whole country when you think of it, but Russia is I believe fine with it, but I'm not sure that Zelenskyy's fine with it. His people love it, but he hasn't read it. So someday you'll explain that one to me, Jack.

I don't have an explanation. President Trump, what's your next step? Raymond, thank you very much. Good job you're doing. Say hello. Thank you. What would you most like to see Sylvester Stallone do as a Hollywood ambassador?

He is automatic, I mean as far as I'm concerned, he is one of the ambassadors as you know, and he's already been doing that. Look, all he has to do is be himself. If Sly is himself, that's all he can be. If he tries to be somebody else it wouldn't be good. He's a great guy, he's done a fantastic job, and he really deserves this honor. You know it's something he's wanted for years. And this is bigger than it's ever been. I mean I don't want to say why, I refuse to say why, but you take a look at this line lastly, last year, would you look at this line, it was not this. It was different, it was a different thing.

Mr. President, why are you and the First Lady both spending so much time, so much energy in revivifying and remaking the Kennedy center?

It's not the Kennedy's we're and we are look, Bobby Junior's doing a fantastic job. It's not the Kennedy's, it's our country. We're bringing our country back, and we're bringing DC back, Washington DC, we're bringing our capital, it's a safe place now, it was a very unsafe.

No, I mean the center itself. Why are you so focused on revivifying?

Because it could never be built again. It's got three massive places, halls, where you have different stages, dance, theater, and you have a place that we're going to be in tonight that there's really nothing like it in the country. And if this disappeared you'd never be able to build it again. And I'm able to save it because that's what I used to do for a living, really, is well make it better than anybody else. I can take something and spend less money than other people and make it better than anybody else could. The Kennedy Center has a chance to be unbelievable. And you know I mentioned yesterday something very important: sound. It's like sometimes you could say like people, either have it or you don't. Great sound in this building. A lot of times, and you know the Lincoln Center sound, they've rebuilt one building, most important building, they rebuilt it four times and they've never been able to produce really great sound. The sound in the Kennedy Center has been incredible from day one. Call it luck or talent, probably luck, there's a lot of luck involved. You know the great sound buildings, the greatest in the world are the old opera houses built in the 17 and 1800s in Europe, and they had one thing that was in common: lots of marble. And they didn't have sound engineers, they had lots of marble, and this is has got great sound, even right here in the hallway the sound is fantastic. Thank you very much Raymond.

Mr. President, First Lady, what does the honors represent?

Well, are you talking about the five honorees, the five group and the five honorees? They are outstanding people, I had to approve them all, and every one of them very different. I said last night, totally different, totally different audience, but when you add them up they're 100% of our country and a big percentage of the world. So we have great honorees, it's going to be a lot of fun. You're going to have a good time tonight. Thank you.

President Trump, you love the arts. Mr. President, respect you, you know that you've hosted the honors within a year, could you imagine next year maybe you're not hosting but maybe you're receiving a Kennedy Center honor?

That's an interesting one, I hadn't thought of that. Yeah I think I'm going to nominate myself for next year.

President Trump, every day you have the big job being the President, how why was it important for you to actually host these shows tonight and how much time did you spend getting ready for it?

Well it wasn't important for me, other than if I get much higher ratings, if it's a more successful show then I'm contributing. I get nothing, I don't make money with it, I don't do anything, it's a little bit of work, not a lot of work. I look forward to doing it but the network said would it be possible to get the President to host, and I love the concept of no President has ever hosted the Kennedy Center honorees. And it's very important that this building be great, and that this building remain, really you know I saved the building. But really you know we raised a lot of money tonight, tremendous record numbers of dollars, a lot of money, and we've raised over 100 million dollars over the last very short period of time. That's a lot of money, and that money goes into the rejuvenation and the rebuilding of the building, and a lot of it's a lot of it's already taken place. A lot of the things that you don't see have already taken place.

Mr. President, you’re talking about saving the building. When will locals who come to the Kennedy Center who live here, when will we start to see all the changes and do you have a timeline for when this will all wrap up?

Yeah over the next four or five months we're going to have it very well set. You see the outside, the columns are beautiful, you know they had a fake gold color and now they're beautiful gleaming white, and everyone's talking about that. It sounds like not much of a change, it's a massive change, you know the white against the white marble. The marble is being rejuvenated, they're great pieces of marble but they've been let go and they've been tired. And I always say you can take a hundredth of an inch off of a piece of marble and you have a brand new piece of marble but nobody does that. It's not an easy process but if you look on the outside of the building people see already a very big change.

Does the First Lady have any of the style or changes that happen here?

Yeah she's got great taste, I'll ask her. I'll ask her opinion, she liked the white as opposed to the fake gold. But they had the fake gold. You know the one thing about gold you can never imitate real gold. They've tried to do it for years, paint, gold paint. Gold paint never works. You gotta go for the real 24 karat gold. Yes?

Is there any other President other than yourself that you think would have done as good a job hosting Kennedy center?

Hosting yes, building no. We have a couple of Presidents, you know politicians are very good on their feet most of them. I would say the last one wouldn't have done too well hosting, but but you know we've had some great politicians. Excuse me, John F. Kennedy would have done a very good job hosting. But building no. I will build better than anybody, I build better than anybody. Thank you.

Mr. President, 23 million dollars raised tonight, nearly doubling last year. Why do you think that is?

Maybe we had something to do with it, I don't know. We doubled up last year. It's really much more than that because we've raised we've done over 100, not including tonight, we've done over 100 million dollars already. And those are numbers that the Kennedy Center has never seen before. Doing really well. Thank you for that question.

Mr. President, thank you so much for American greatness. You've done so much for American greatness. Talk to the next generation about how important the values that you're celebrating tonight are to American greatness, things like self-discipline, creativity, talent, those things.

Well the young generation I think is going to grow up strong. We have a very different country than we had a year ago. A year ago we had a country that was in big trouble. Now we have a country that's the talk of the world and everybody's respecting us again and young people are respecting us again too. I won the young vote, the Republicans never win the young vote. I won it easily. And I want to thank Charlie and I want to thank TikTok and there are a lot of reasons for it. But there's never been a Republican who won the young vote and I won the very young vote. So that's a good sign.