President Trump affirmed his growing influence over the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington on Wednesday morning by announcing the new class of Kennedy Center honorees and revealing that he would host this year’s ceremony personally.
Mr. Trump has taken a strong interest in the Kennedy Center’s affairs ever since naming himself chairman in February, when he purged its traditionally bipartisan board of Biden-era appointees and restocked it with loyalists. His news conference made clear that he is in complete control of the Kennedy Center Honors: He suggested he had approved the final list of honorees himself, saying he rejected several prospective names he called “wokesters.”
Instead, his list included the country music legend George Strait, the disco queen Gloria Gaynor, and the glam rock band Kiss as musical honorees. Joining them were Michael Crawford, a British actor decorated for his stage performances in musicals like “Phantom of the Opera,” and Sylvester Stallone, the American action actor best known for portraying the boxer Rocky Balboa in a series of eponymous films and the mercenary warrior John Rambo in another box-office franchise.
Mr. Trump spoke at length about Mr. Stallone, whom he said in January would serve as a special ambassador to Hollywood along with two other supporters, Mel Gibson and Jon Voight, who he said would be his “eyes and ears” in the entertainment capital.
The announcement, in a week when Mr. Trump has taken federal control of Washington’s police department and launched a review of exhibits at the Smithsonian, marked another step in his cultural takeover of Washington and its institutions.
In March, Mr. Trump toured the Kennedy Center and met with his new board for the first time and floated the idea of hosting its annual honors ceremony himself, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by The New York Times. Mr. Trump referred to himself then as “the king of ratings.”
He boycotted the ceremony during his first term after several of the artists who were being honored criticized him. This time, he reveled in his view from behind the lectern, remaking on the center’s marble columns and his thoughts about how to renovate everything from its grand spaces to the lawns outside. “We’re going to redo the grass with the finest grasses,” he said.
His lengthy remarks veered between topics for about an hour, and included personal memories of Mr. Stallone’s films, his thoughts about a peace deal for Ukraine; critiques of favored targets like former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the Federal Reserve chair Jerome H. Powell; and his distaste for Washington itself, a capital city that he once again derided as “dirty.”
Asked by reporters about his looming summit with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Friday in Alaska, Mr. Trump said Russia would face consequences if it did not agree to stop its war in Ukraine. He did not offer details except to say those consequences would be “very severe.”
Mr. Trump told a reporter that he probably would not be able to stop Mr. Putin from targeting civilians in Ukraine, because he had had that conversation with the Russian leader before, and the killings of civilians have continued.