Sunday, June 21, 2026

Kennedy Center Honors Being Renamed for Trump in Another Step of Destruction, Mark Twain Prize for Comedy Has Vanished

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The further destruction of the Kennedy Center continues.

This is a real story, not satire. Trump is renaming the Kennedy Center Honors for himself.

The awards, according to the vile head of the theater Richard Grenell, will be the Trump Kennedy Center Honors.

It’s no surprise since the renaming of the Center itself with Trump’s tarnished moniker added to JFK’s beloved name.

“It will definitely go forward,” Grenell told a local news radio station in Washington DC. “It will probably just be in a smaller venue, which just means ticket demand will be even higher.”

The demand is already fairly low, so much so that the Kennedy Center is closing for two years on July 7th after attendance at events has dropped to all time lows.

A smaller venue? Maybe it can be in Ford’s Theater. I hear that’s a great place for a president to sit in the main box.

Meantime, the annual Mark Twain Prize has disappeared. Last year the recipient was Conan O’Brien. His name was announced in January, the sho was taped on March 23rd and show soon after on Netflix.

But with Trump staring down Netflix in the Paramount-Warners deal, and no comedian willing to not criticize his administration — the Conan show was appropriately vicious about Trump — it looks like the whole Mark Twain Prize is gone at least until 2029 when Trump is tossed from office.

We can say all the offensive changes are a surprise, but they’re not. If you voted for Trump, this is what you get — in addition to today’s war with Iran and all the rest of it. Shame on you.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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