The Honors Move Out
Five careers, one contested building
The Kennedy Center names Paul Anka, David Foster, Andy Garcia, David Mamet and Barbara Mandrell while its stages sit dark and its future is argued in federal court.
One room has held the Kennedy Center Honors since 1978: the center's Opera House, which Billboard lists at 2,347 seats. This year that room will sit dark. The Associated Press reports that the Kennedy Center has closed and its stages have gone without performances for months. The center says the next gala will be held on December 7 at Capital One Arena in Washington, the first time the ceremony has been held there.
The center announced the 49th class on Nov. 2: Paul Anka, David Foster, Andy Garcia, David Mamet and Barbara Mandrell. It says they were chosen on the recommendation of its Special Honors Advisory Committee, whose members include former honorees, artists and trustees. Billboard notes that the way the names came out changed as well. Last year President Donald Trump announced the five honorees himself at a live press event. This year they were announced the traditional way.
So the oldest question about the Honors, who deserves them, now shares the stage with a newer one: what has become of the institution handing them out. The careers come first.
The center's release says Anka became a star at 15, when “Diana” went to No. 1 in 1957. Billboard counts 10 top 10 hits on its Hot 100 chart, including two No. 1s more than 15 years apart. The center says his latest album, “Inspirations of Life and Love,” came out in 2026. In a post on X quoted by Billboard, Anka wrote: “After 70 years of doing what I love and being a part of the fabric of the American culture, I am humbled to receive this prestigious honor.”
Two of this year's honorees have already shared a credit. Billboard says Foster co-wrote Anka's 1983 hit “Hold Me Till The Morning Comes,” which reached No. 40 on the Hot 100. The center says Foster created The David Foster Foundation in 1986 to give financial support to Canadian families with children who need life-saving organ transplants. According to the center, Garcia premiered his film “Diamond” at the Cannes Film Festival in 2026. Billboard says he is the fourth Cuban-born artist to receive the Honors.
For Mandrell, the center points to a different kind of record: in 2009, it says, she became the only woman ever inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame. In an Instagram post quoted by Billboard, she wrote: “Country music has been a gift to me, and I’m humbled that the songs and performances we shared continue to mean something to people.”
AP's report adds a political frame. It says several honorees are “either friendly with Trump or have been outspoken in support of conservative politics.” AP describes Anka as a longtime friend of Trump who once rewrote “My Way,” originally written for Frank Sinatra, with MAGA-themed lyrics. It reports that Foster has performed for Trump in the past. It also reports that Mamet told Fox News he was once a “brain-dead liberal.”
Against that, AP sets the ceremony's history. Until Trump's first term, it says, presidents of both major parties traditionally attended the ceremony, even when they disagreed politically with a recipient. Barbra Streisand and Warren Beatty, whom AP calls prominent liberals, were honored under Republican George W. Bush. The L.A. Times notes that last year's class was George Strait, KISS, Michael Crawford, Gloria Gaynor and Sylvester Stallone. Billboard lists the first class, in 1978, as Marian Anderson, Fred Astaire, George Balanchine, Richard Rodgers and Arthur Rubinstein. The list has widened since: Billboard says B.B. King became the first blues artist inducted, in 1987.
That history runs into a harder year for the building itself, much of it spent in court. AP reports that Trump fired the center's board and replaced it with what AP calls loyalists, who named him chairman. It also reports that the Honors are moving offsite while Trump battles a federal court over his plans to renovate the building and add his name to it. According to the L.A. Times, a federal judge in May ordered Trump's name removed from the exterior and blocked the planned two-year closure of the venue. Four months later, in mid-September, the paper reports, Trump threatened to demolish the building unless his name was returned to the facade.
Rep. Joyce Beatty has argued in a court filing that the closure is meant to hide the center's financial decline under Trump, the L.A. Times reports. Trump's own statement spoke to the class rather than the filing, and he described it as continuity: “We are proud to honor this year's class and to continue a tradition that has defined the Center for nearly 50 years.”
Two questions remain open. The L.A. Times reports that the announcement did not say whether Trump would host the ceremony again. Billboard notes that it did not name a broadcast partner for 2026.
The Honors have long been read as a national stamp that sits above the politics of the moment. AP's history shows presidents of both parties attending through disagreement, and Streisand and Beatty honored under Bush. That history suggests the stamp's value came less from who was picked than from a sense that the picking was shared.
This year that sense appears strained on several fronts at once: a board replaced, a name contested in federal court, a dark Opera House, a gala moved to an arena. Taken together, those facts may lead some viewers to see the class through the institution. Some may read the honorees' ties to Trump, as AP reports them, as part of the message.
The strongest counter-reading is that the careers stand on their own. “Diana” reached No. 1 when Anka was 15. Mandrell holds a place in the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame that no other woman holds. Foster's foundation dates to 1986. And the center says a committee of former honorees, artists and trustees made the recommendations. AP's own history also shows that honorees with known political views are nothing new. On that reading, the arena is a change of venue, not a verdict.
Three things would move us: who hosts on December 7, whether a broadcaster carries the ceremony, and whether the court fight settles before the next class is named. Until then the Opera House sits dark and the gala goes to an arena. The records stay the same.
“After 70 years of doing what I love and being a part of the fabric of the American culture, I am humbled to receive this prestigious honor.”
