“Politics is downstream from culture”, we were often told by the late, great Andrew Breitbart. And I often wonder what he’d think about the legacy media as they cover President Donald Trump’s efforts to leave his own mark on that equation. If NBC’s coverage about this year’s Kennedy Center Honors is any indication, then Trump may have succeeded.
Watch as the report opens with repeated whining over the fact that Trump is taking an outsized role in pop culture:
TOM LLAMAS: Let's head to Washington. President Trump today announcing he’s putting his stamp on another American cultural institution, the Kennedy Center Honors. The president says he will host this year's event and hand-picked the honorees this year. Here’s Gabe Gutierrez.
GABE GUTIERREZ: Already a near constant presence at wrestling matches and NFL games, tonight President Trump is expanding his role in American pop culture, at the latest battleground of the culture war.
DONALD TRUMP: We ended the woke political programming, and we are restoring the Kennedy Center as the premier venue for performing arts anywhere in the country.
GUTIERREZ: After naming himself chairman of the board earlier this year, President Trump is now declaring he will lead the Kennedy Center's award ceremony in December.
The report opens with complaints about Trump’s “near constant presence at wrestling matches” even though he hasn’t attended a WWE event since Wrestlemania 29, after his Hall of Fame induction in 2013. What’s worse, the video package airs video from his 2007 “Battle of the Billionaires” angle. But no UFC footage, which is what Gutierrez was probably trying to refer to. Accuracy matters, right?
The item had multiple references to Trump “putting his stamp” or taking over, or “reshaping”, which sounded like a lot of whining. We never saw such news pieces about Barack Obama’s impact on culture during (and after) his presidency, despite the fact that he was covered as though he were a celebrity.
Contrast with related reports from CBS and ABC, which were brief in comparison to NBC’s and didn’t fret about Trump wanting to engage with the D.C. culture scene:
CBS EVENING NEWS
8/13/25
6:36 PM
MAURICE DuBOIS: And President Trump announced this year's Kennedy Center honorees. Country singer George Strait, actor Sylvester Stallone, singer Gloria Gaynor, the rock group KISS, and the original Phantom of the Opera, Michael Crawford. The president will host the ceremony, which airs in December, here on CBS and Paramount+.
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT
8/13/25
6:52 PM
DAVID MUIR: To the index of other news. President Trump after his takeover of the Kennedy Center revealing the new list of Kennedy Center honorees. The president, now the Kennedy Center chairman, says he will personally host the event in December. Among the honorees: actor Sylvester Stallone, the president calling him a friend and real talent. Also being honored: country music singer George Strait, Tony Award-winning actor Michael Crawford, singer Gloria Gaynor, and the band KISS. President Trump says he was 98% involved in picking the honorees.
The report winds down with whining about Trump’s directives to the Smithsonian’s museums:
GUTIERREZ: The president also ordering a review of the Smithsonian's museum exhibitions, a White House letter stressing the iconic institution should “ensure alignment with the President's directive to support American exceptionalism” and issue “corrections” where necessary. Critics say it amounts to rewriting history.
This is a good time to remember that some of those exhibits depicted hard work, timeliness, and a distaste for seasoned food as “white traits”. This is not something that needs to be funded with our tax dollars.
NBC’s concern over Trump and culture appear to be little more than outrage over the fact that he participates at all. And so they are reduced to whining about it.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on the NBC Nightly News on Wednesday, August 13th, 2025:
TOM LLAMAS: Let's head to Washington. President Trump today announcing he’s putting his stamp on another American cultural institution, the Kennedy Center Honors. The president says he will host this year's event and hand-picked the honorees this year. Here’s Gabe Gutierrez.
GABE GUTIERREZ: Already a near constant presence at wrestling matches and NFL games, tonight President Trump is expanding his role in American pop culture, at the latest battleground of the culture war.
DONALD TRUMP: We ended the woke political programming, and we are restoring the Kennedy Center as the premier venue for performing arts anywhere in the country.
GUTIERREZ: After naming himself chairman of the board earlier this year, President Trump is now declaring he will lead the Kennedy Center's award ceremony in December.
TRUMP: I have been asked to host. I said, "I am the President of the United States. Are you fools, asking me to do that?" "Sir, you will get much higher ratings."
GUTIERREZ: The Kennedy Center has been home to dazzling performances since the '70s. This year, President Trump announced the honorees, which he says he personally selected.
TRUMP: I would say I was about 98% involved. I turned down plenty. They were too woke. I turned them -- I had a couple of wokesters.
GUTIERREZ: The winners include rock legends KISS. Disco queen Gloria Gaynor. Blockbuster action hero, Sylvester Stallone.
TRUMP: Sly is a pillar of the, really, American pop culture (VIDEO SWIPE) and one of the biggest names on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In fact, the only one that is a bigger name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame they say is a guy named Donald Trump.
GUTIERREZ: The president also ordering a review of the Smithsonian's museum exhibitions, a White House letter stressing the iconic institution should “ensure alignment with the President's directive to support American exceptionalism” and issue “corrections” where necessary. Critics say it amounts to rewriting history.
CHUCK SCHUMER: It’s downright Orwellian. It’s something you’d see in an authoritarian regime.
GUTIERREZ: At the Kennedy Center tonight, portraits of the president, first lady, and vice president greet visitors as the Commander-in-Chief reshapes much more than politics.
And in Congress, a Republican-sponsored bill proposes renaming the Kennedy Center after President Trump. Tom.
LLAMAS: All right, Gabe, we thank you.