A reaction to the Trump awards from the composer and pianist David Chesky:
Once upon a time—say, in 1978—the Kennedy Center Honors were a kind of secular cathedral service for American genius. Marian Anderson, Fred Astaire, George Balanchine, Richard Rodgers, Arthur Rubinstein: each one a monument in human form, each carrying the gravitas of someone who could change the air in a room without saying a word. They weren’t just celebrated; they were consecrated.
Fast-forward to 2025 and the altar looks different. George Strait brings his cowboy hat, Sylvester Stallone his boxing gloves, Gloria Gaynor her disco ball, Michael Crawford his Phantom mask, and KISS arrives with pyrotechnics and face paint in tow. They’re icons, yes—but icons of a culture that measures artistry in decibels, streams, and merch tables.
And here’s the uncomfortable truth: this isn’t a Kennedy Center problem—it’s an American problem. The sciences, the high arts, the intellectual rigor that once formed the spine of a confident nation are now seen as irrelevant luxuries, or worse, as subversive threats. Our cultural gatekeepers have traded their role as curators of excellence for that of crowd-pleasers-in-chief. Complexity is out; comfort is in. The spectacle must be easy to digest, like fast food for the soul.
In that light, the 2025 class makes perfect sense. The Kennedy Center is merely reflecting the society it serves—a society that has decided the role of art is not to challenge, provoke, or elevate, but to entertain without consequence. In a way, it’s poetic: the Hall of Fame has become a hall of mirrors, reflecting back our taste for nostalgia, our allergy to difficulty, our preference for the familiar over the sublime.
My only personal regret is that Hulk Hogan didn’t make the cut. As a symbol, he’s perfect: a man who made theater out of biceps and turned conflict into pure performance. Which, come to think of it, is what America now asks of its art: flex for the camera, keep the crowd loud, and never, ever make them think too hard.
Perhaps the Kennedy Center has gotten it right. After all, if you want to honor a culture, you don’t honor what it was—you honor what it’s willing to settle for.
David Chesky
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