The Show Goes on at the Embattled Kennedy Center

B ill Maher received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in a star-studded ceremony on Sunday at the Kennedy Center. But speaking to National Review on the red carpet, one guest seemed displeased with both Maher’s selection and the current state of Washington’s cultural hub.

“They took my name off the goddamn wall. You understand? They took the name off. And Bill’s a lightweight, terrible comedian. So I’m not gonna support him, okay?”

Those aren’t the words of Donald Trump. The president, who became chairman of the Kennedy Center’s board last February and has spent the past year attempting to reshape the institution in his image, did not attend Sunday’s ceremony. They were spoken instead by Matt Friend, a young comedian whose uncanny impression of Trump sent poised reporters beside me into giggling fits.

Later in the evening, when Maher took the stage to collect his award, Friend leapt from his seat to interject. “Why are we giving this low-ratings, lightweight jerk the Mark Twain Award?” he asked in Trump’s voice. “I deserve this award, okay?” Although administration officials and MAGA allies were well represented in the audience, the room was nonetheless consumed with laughter.

It’s been a turbulent month for the Kennedy Center. On May 29, a federal judge ruled that Trump’s name could not be added to the building’s façade and that his plans to close the venue for a two-year renovation project could not proceed. But while the president’s name no longer looms above the building’s entrance — which has been covered by tarp for more than two weeks — it was uttered by almost every celebrity who spoke throughout Sunday’s show.

In her opening routine, comedian Whitney Cummings cracked jokes about Greenland, Jeffrey Epstein, and Maher’s decision to dine with Trump, Kid Rock, and Dana White at the White House last year. Seeing the three of them together, she quipped, “once and for all proves there really is no God.” Actor Woody Harrelson opened his set by poking fun at the Kennedy Center’s thwarted name change, while late-night veteran Jay Leno hailed Maher as a “big, beautiful Bill.”

The crowd largely responded to these jabs with uproarious cheers, but the last laugh belonged to the president. Despite his absence from both the event and the building’s exterior, his presence was inescapable. The Kennedy Center, like so many other aspects of America’s national identity, continues to dangle in Trump’s orbit.

Despite all this, the venue’s future remains uncertain.

Speaking to National Review on the red carpet Sunday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick expressed confidence that Trump’s efforts to renovate the center will succeed despite recent legal setbacks. “I’d always bet on President Trump because, generally, he does what he thinks is the right thing to do,” Lutnick said. “We’ll get this through the courts. We’ll resolve it. And this center will shine like it’s never shined before.”

Lutnick insisted that the venue requires urgent attention to fix various safety issues. Echoing his concerns, Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, told NR that important maintenance work on the building has been deferred for decades. “No one wants to walk around and go to a show with a hard hat on,” she said. “We’ve brought board members, congressional members, the press into the bowels of the building to really see why [renovation is] so desperately needed.”

In the coming weeks, Daravi said, the Kennedy Center’s board will convene to discuss next steps. For now, programming and other events will continue, despite the outrage of performers who oppose Trump’s influence.

While most of the political discussion at Sunday’s award ceremony concerned the president, other topics were occasionally acknowledged. Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, one of the few Democratic politicians who attended the event, spoke to NR about the rise of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the success of other radical members of the Democratic Socialists of America in the city’s recent primary elections.

“We officially have like a dirtbag left wing,” Fetterman said. “[Mamdani] was asked, ‘Do you think you should abolish prisons?’ And he won’t even answer that question.” Some of these “dirtbag” candidates, the senator added, “are just bad people. I can’t say anything kind about them.” He shared his frustration with the failure of moderate Democrats to “call these people out” despite their growing momentum.

In his acceptance speech, Maher offered advice of his own to extreme figures across the political spectrum. “When either side gets mad at me because I put them in jokes — jokes that work — my message is very simple: You want to not get mocked? Stop being funny. My jokes won’t work.”

Beyond politics, patriotism was a prevailing theme of the evening. With America’s Semiquincentennial fast approaching, most of the performers took at least a moment during their remarks to praise the United States or note the importance of its values.

Leno, for instance, touched on the necessity of free speech and debate. Cummings, meanwhile, recognized America’s extraordinarily open society and the opportunity it brings: “I think my favorite thing about you is that you don’t pretend it’s cool to hate America. No other country could make a Bill Maher.”

On the red carpet, Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R., Fla.) dismissed recent polls that have shown a decline in American pride. “If you see some of the videos coming out from the tourists that are here for FIFA, I think they’re reminding America just how great this country truly is,” she told NR. “I think if you get off social media, go touch some grass, you’ll be grounded again in what matters.”

Overcoming division so that all can share in America’s splendor is a primary goal of the revamped Kennedy Center, according to Daravi. “Everyone is welcome at America’s cultural center,” she said, describing Maher, who often criticizes both Democrats and Republicans, as hardly a partisan choice for the award. “When you come to a show here, you sit in the audience. It doesn’t matter who voted for who, the person sitting on your left or your right, or even if they voted at all. It’s about enjoying art and celebrating culture.”

Time will tell if the American public agrees.