Washington has seen many illustrious visits. But few as electrifying – and controversial – as the one in the Oval Office this year. Donald J. Trump, in a move that defies decades of protocol, personally presented the Kennedy Center Honors 2025 medals to a selection of artists who have not only shaped American culture, but set it on fire from within: KISS, Gloria Gaynor, George Strait, Sylvester Stallone and Michael Crawford.
A mix between red carpet, political reality show and living museum of pop culture. A historic moment: the rock in makeup, the disco queen, the country cowboy and an action legend in front of the president. If the White House was looking for spectacle, it got it.
KISS at the center of power and the rock that never asked for permission
The image will go down in history: Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, medals around their necks, makeup off but attitude intact. Trump called them “one of the greatest bands this country has ever seen.”
Ironic: Paul Stanley had called the president a “danger to democracy” in 2021. And yet, there he was, smiling with the most prestigious medal in American culture. Rock was always contradictory, but never hypocritical: it can hate the system and sleep in its arms if history demands it.
Simmons, pragmatic as always, summed it up best:
“KISS is the American dream. This honor is the proof.”
The message, at bottom, was clear: rebelling is also part of America’s cultural heritage.
Gloria Gaynor and resilience in the form of disco-ball
When Trump uttered “Nobody did it like Gloria Gaynor,” he wasn’t just talking about disco: he was talking about the anthem that survived machismo, cultural disdain and musical elitism. “I Will Survive” is not just a hit: it’s a flag.
Gaynor raised his head as if it were his fourth consecration. And maybe it is. Four decades later, she is still the woman who taught the world to survive by dancing. In a politically fractured country, her triumph acquires another meaning: culture unites us more than speeches.
George Strait and the country music that is also heritage
While half the industry is still arguing whether country still belongs to the cultural elite, George Strait put an end to the debate. The medal hung while Trump suggested he keep his hat on – an image so American that it seemed to be taken from a
Strait represents tradition, the deep south, rural pride. A musical culture that no longer fits into stereotypes and that today receives its place among the giants.
🎬 Stallone and Crawford: cinema also sits at the table.
Trump couldn’t avoid the show. He called Stallone “one of the great myths of cinema”. He was not exaggerating: Rocky and Rambo are part of America’s audiovisual DNA.
Michael Crawford, theatrical legend and “eternal ghost”, proved that Broadway is also a popular heritage. Two different worlds united by the same medal. Cinema and theater sharing the stage with rock, country and disco. A postcard impossible in any other historical moment.
What really changed, the Kennedy Center is no longer neutral.
Trump didn’t just hand out medals. He redesigned the system: he expelled the board of directors, appointed himself president of the council and moved the ceremony to the White House.
This -whether his decisions are liked or not- marks a new era: culture is no longer in the hands of experts, but of political power. For some, an institutional coup; for others, a democratization of cultural recognition.
Scandal or renovation? Depends on who’s telling the story. But one thing is for sure: the Kennedy Center Honors will never be the same again.
Pop culture came out on top
Beyond Trump, what shone were the artists. A divided country found, for one night, five symbols of its deepest identity:
- The exuberance of rock.
- The resistance disk.
- Country pride.
- The myth of cinema.
- Theatrical magic.
Five ways to understand America. Five ways to survive, resist, sing, act… and stay.
It was not a gala, it was a snapshot of what culture can do when power uses it – or when culture uses power. In history, music always wins. And this time was no exception.
