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

It. Building is going to be brought back to life and it'll be better than it was from day one. Over the years I've been watching, we've had some wonderful honors, but I think this is very much unparalleled. So see how it turns out. I think it's going to be great. Have celebrated the art and design part of your journey. Well, a road meeting will bring 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's not in good condition now. It's in very good condition. And as you know, climates we brought down to a level of. No, we're very proud of it. Thank you very much. Say it. Do you think the center will eventually use name Trump? I don't know. I hear that. I don't know. It's not up to me. That's up to the board. The board makes that decision. I have a very prestigious board. You look at the names. I don't think there's a board like it. So that would be a say. Well, I think maybe not. This is about the Kennedy Senate. Thank you. 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 list? 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. But I have a question for you, Mr. President. How have you prepared to host him? Well, maybe I haven't prepared. Maybe you want to be a little bit loose. If you look at the great host, Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, those are the greats. If you look at the not so greats, like Jimmy Kimmel, who is just terrible. But no, I think you ought to be just loose. Not a lot to prepare for. You know what you have to be? You have to be yourself. I've been asking your cabinets and I is this going to be more Johnny Carson or Don Ripples? Well, Don, I knew them both and they were both great guys and friends of mine. Both difficult, but great. I was really very close to both of them. You can't compare them. They were very different. But Johnny Carson for hosting was top of the line. President Trump, Jesse Waters has a question for you. What was your favorite moment of 2025? At the beginning, I think when Jesse Waters 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. Who is on your naughty list this year? Oh, that's a long list. I better not tell you. We 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. We're the hottest country in the world. What would be. Jesse Waters is terrific. What are you going to give recommendations? Mr. President of the Supreme Court overturning your authority on tariffs. What would be the case for the economy, for the 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 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 tried to end it ninth. And we thought this would be maybe one of the easier ones. We just did Rwanda and Congo and that was going on for 30 years. Russia, Ukraine, I thought was going to be a little bit easier, but it's not being made easy. It's a very tough war, very nasty. 27,000 people died last month, mostly soldiers. I will say that, Paul, 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 McCulloch used to express concern about using the tariffs with revenue for dividend, saying we should be paying down the national debt. Well, we will. I agree with them on 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 to 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 and countries that were taking advantage of us for many, many years, not taking advantage of us anymore. We're taking in tremendous amounts of money from countries that we were losing lots of money. 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. 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 in Ukraine talks after the last. So we've been speaking to President Putin and we've been speaking to Ukrainian leaders, including Zelensky. President Zelensky. And I have to say that I'm a little bit disappointed that President Zelensky hasn't yet read the proposal. That was as of a few hours ago. His people love it, but he has. Russia's fine with it. Russia's, you know, Russia, I guess, would rather have the whole country. Would you think of it? But Russia is, I believe, fine with it. But I'm not sure that Zelenskyy is fine with it. His people love it. But he has agreed. So someday you'll explain that one to me, Jeff. I don't have an explanation. President Trump. Raymond, thank you very much. Good job you're doing. Say hello. Thank you. What would you like to see as a Hollywood ambassador? In the Hollywood. 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 last year, last year, if you look at design, it was not this. It was a different thing. Why are you the first lady that's spending so much time, so much energy in revivifying and remaking the Kennedys. It's not the Kennedys. And we are. Look, Bobby Jr. Is doing a fantastic job. It's not the Kennedys. It's our country. We're bringing our country back and we're bringing D.C. back. Washington D.C. we're bringing our capital. It's a safe place now. It's a very unsafe. The center itself. Why? Why are you so focused on revivifying? Because it could never be built again. It's got three massive places called. 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 could 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, you 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 at 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. This is. Has got great sound. Even right here in the hallway. The sound is fantastic. Thank you very much, Raymond. I'm just curious to know how they have impacted your own personal. Well, are you talking about the five honorees and 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. Is going to be a lot of fun. You're going to have a good time tonight. Thank you. Now, we know that you proposal before you press this within a year. Could you imagine next year? Maybe you're not hosting, but maybe you receive it. Kidding ceremony. That's an interesting one. I haven't thought of that. Yeah, I think I'm going to nominate myself for next year. Mr. President. Every day you have a big job being the president. How. Why was it important for me to actually host the show 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 than 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 at 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. 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 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. 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, I hear 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 be wrapped up? Over the next four or five months, we're going to have it very well. You see the outside, the columns, they're beautiful. You know, they had a fake gold color and now they have 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 example 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 one. Yeah, she's got great taste. I'll ask her. I'll ask her 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 got to go for the real 24 karat gold. Yes. Yes, sir. Is there any other president other than yourself who you think would have done a good job hosting? Hosting, yes. Building the. You have a couple of, you know, politicians. They're very good on their feet, most of them. I would say the last one wouldn't have done too well, 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, no, I will build better than anybody. I build better than anybody. Thank you. Doubling $23 million. 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 already. And those are numbers that the Kennedy center has never seen before. It's doing really well. Thank you for that question, Mr. President. You've done so much for American greatness. Talk to the next generation about how important the values are 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. Everybody's respected, respecting us again, and young people are respecting us again, too. I won the young vote. 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. Mr. President, why did you. Mr. President, why did you select for the honor this evening? Do you have a favorite Kiss song? Well, I like them as people. I've listened to their music over the years. They are characters, too. I don't know if you saw last night, the speeches. They were great. They really made some great speeches last night and they're very popular. A lot of people, you know, a lot of people write in and ask us to select. So, like, think of it. Sylvester Stallone was not picked for any this time. He's one of the greatest movie stars of all time based on revenue, based on, you know, Rocky And Rambo and the numbers. No, I. I doubt. Maybe there's a couple of stars that have done something equal, but really, there's nothing like it. So we're going to have a very exciting night, but Kiss is terrific. What are your two questions? What are you looking forward to most about listening tonight? And number two, Secretary Duffy says you are the master of the playlist out on the Rose Darkest Club. What's your favorite song to listen to on the Rose? Dark. Well, I have so many different songs, and, I mean, look, Lee Greenwood really hit big with that. It was from day one that was. We put it on the first rally and we never. We never took it off. And he's great. But I have a lot of favorites, and I can tell you that we both love Elton John. Special man, special guy, truly talented. We like a lot of different. I like a lot of different songs, a lot of different types of music. I have a good playlist. Thank you. What would you like to see for America? 250 here at the Kennedy Center. What would you like to see? Well, we're going to have a lot of events. You know, one of the things you're going to have here is some of the UFC press. You're going to have the fighters coming over, talking about the fights. It's a big deal. The UFC on June 14th. It's going to be June 14th next year. They're building an arena. The great Dana White's building an arena, and they're going to have eight or nine championship fights, the biggest fights they've ever had. Everyone's a championship fight, and everyone's a legendary type of fight. He's actually holding back fights right now for six months. So he can do it for this. The 250. I think 250 is going to be amazing. I think the arena is going to be five or six thousand seats right in front of the front door of the White House, and 100,000 people in the back where they're putting up eight or ten very big screens. That's going to be an exciting night. So many people are asking for tickets. The UFC. Thank you, Mr. President. I did. I met with Ted. I think he's fantastic. I think he's. In. The history of Hollywood has really been almost, you could say nothing like what he's done. You'd go back to Louis B. Mayer, maybe metro Golden Mayor, mgm. Ted has done an incredible job. I mean, he had a company that was very troubled seven or eight years ago ago, and he took it over, and he's really done A legendary job. Should they be allowed to buy Warner Brothers? Should they? Well, that's the question. They have a very big market share, and when they have Warner Brothers, you know, that share goes up a lot. So I don't know. That's going to be for some economists to tell. And also. And I'll be involved in that decision, too. They have a very big market share. Did he make any guarantees to you about the merger if they do merge? No, no, not at all. He came up. He was in the Oval Office last week. I have a lot of respect for him. He's a great. He's a great person. But he's done one of the greatest jobs in the history of movies and other things. And he's got a lot of interesting things happening, aside from what you're talking about. But it is a big market share. There's no question about. Could be a problem. Mr. President, you mentioned some of your favorite songs. In your opinion of what makes a song great. Well, it's something that has to be soft and soothing to your ear. I like some songs that other people don't like. You know, that's why they have you ever hear the expression. That's why they have menus and restaurants. We're all different. We all order different things. Otherwise you just serve one meal and that would be it. Are you a country music fan? But I like, I like. I love country music. And we have. Hey, we have the king of country music tonight. So that's another one. President Trump, will you rename the Kennedy center the Trump Center? It's not up to me. We have a board of 40 people that are really the most prestigious people in the United States. We have the honorary chairwoman on the board. Right. As the first lady, she's honorary chairwoman. But we have. It's a really prestigious board, and that's up to them. I don't know what they're doing about that. And can you tell us the name? The Opera House. Look, we are saving the Kennedy Center. And can you tell us how did you choose the nominees today? The winners today? Yeah, we went through probably 50 different names. We were politicked by a lot of people, some of them the czars themselves. But we went through 50 names and we picked the five and we're very happy with it. They're really very different, very different audiences. But as I said, just down the line, they're different audiences. But when you add them up, it's 100% of the public. Thank you. Opera House be renamed after Melania to Talk about with Prime Minister Carney and Mexican President Scheinbaum, when you were here just a few days earlier, Mexico and Canada, we met with the. As you know, I mean, it was pretty. Well, a lot of people were here. Right here. We met and the Prime Minister of Canada, President of Mexico, and we spoke for a half hour. Very good, very productive, talked mostly trade. Will you restart negotiations with Canada? Oh, I'll look. I have a great relationship with Canada. They're very tough traders, but I have a very good relationship with the Prime Minister and with Canada. And you had said you would halt those negotiations earlier after the terror. Well, I have halted. So will you restart that? Yeah, we'll see. I mean, you know, the problem is Canada makes a lot of things that we don't need because we make them also. But we'll work it out. Look, Canada is a special place, and they really are good at ice hockey, aren't they? Mr. President? Mr. President. What is more difficult, Mr. President, hosting the Kennedy Center Honors for preparing for the State of the Union. Could I answer that question after the show's over? If you give it to me, Absolutely. I'll give it to you after the show's over. What's more difficult? This is a little bit different, but, you know, I hosted the Apprentice when it was the number one show on television. We did 42.5 million people that night. It was a little different television than it is now. What are more people watching of those things? What are you expecting, Mr. President, in terms of ratings for this year's Kennedy Center? I think it'll do great. I think it's going to do. Ratings are complicated now because you have streaming added on and everything else, but I think it'll do very big. I mean, just look. I mean, just based on what you see right here, if you. If you came here last year, you saw a line that was about one tenth this size. You weren't even here last year. Right. How do you prepare for hosting this year's Kennedy Center? You have so much on your plate. I do. I have a lot of my plate, and I didn't really prepare very much. I read a little bit. I have a good memory, so I can remember things, which is very fortunate. But just. I want to just be myself, so you have to be yourself. Johnny Carson, he was himself. Thank you, everybody. Before we go closer, I'm going to stay away from politic. Politicization. Do you think the Kennedy center is now better serving all Americans? I think it is. I think it's been. It's been really enhanced very greatly over the last 10 months, meaning since we've been here. And we're making it great. We're going to make it physically great as a building. So you won't even believe how beautiful it'll be. And we saved the Kennedy Center. That's a big thing. Thank you.