Donald Trump announced on Wednesday the winners of the Kennedy Center awards, a prestigious Washington Cultural Center, of which he recently took control of the Board of Directors, among which Sylvester Stallone or Gloria Gaynor are.
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The American president also said that he would chair the gala in which the awards are given, which generally takes place in December and is broadcast on the American channel CBS.
“We have put an end to the Woke policy” of this large performance hall, he told journalists in the huge white building by the Potomac river in Washington.
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Sylvester Stallone, 79, appointed three times to the Oscars is a star of American cinema, especially for his role as Rocky Balboa in “Rocky” films.
He was symbolically designated as one of Donald Trump’s “ambassadors” in Hollywood to be “eyes and ears” of the president in the cinema industry, mostly favorable to Democrats. The actor had described the septuagenarian president “second George Washington”, in reference to the founding father and first president of the United States.
In this list, we also find Gloria Gaynor, 81, performer of “I Will Survive”, or George Strait, 73, Country legend, a musical genre traditionally appreciated by the conservatives.
The Rock Kiss group formed in the 1970s in the president’s hometown, New York, and the British actor Michael Crawford, 83, known for his role in “the ghost of the opera”, are also among the winners. Donald Trump said he was an amateur of musicals on Broadway.
A true cultural institution, the Kennedy Center has an opera, a theater room and a symphonic orchestra.
Since his return to the White House in January, Donald Trump has put Kennedy Center under his thumb. After having reworked in mid-February the board of directors in dismissing several historic members, he was appointed to the head of the cultural institution, promising to sweep away the “WOKE” culture.
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Engaged in an ultra-conservative crusade against what he calls “anti-American propaganda” in art but also in research and history, the American president has also regained control of several major museums in the capital.
In this context, the White House announced that it wanted to lead the Smithsonian Institution, an organization managing the main museums of Washington, an in -depth examination to ensure their “alignment” with the vision of America advocated by the president.
During his first mandate from 2017 to 2021, Donald Trump had not attended the Kennedy Center awards ceremony, artists who said they did not want to meet him.