Donald Trump on Wednesday announced “Rocky” star Sylvester Stallone as a Kennedy Center honoree, but the president made the presentation all about himself, observers complained.
“Sly is a pillar of ... American popular culture and a Hollywood superstar like few others and one of the biggest names on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,” Trump began normally enough.
Then his vanity took over.
“In fact, the only one that’s a bigger name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, they say, is a guy named Donald Trump,” he continued. “I’m on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, too, if you can believe that one. ”
If this were a bout against Stallone’s fictitious fighter Rocky Balboa, the judges, aka the internet, might have awarded Trump’s ego an ugly victory by decision.
“Malignant narcissism on full display,” one person wrote.
“Aren’t we lucky to have such a humble president,” snarked another.
Trump’s star, incidentally, has been vandalized multiple times.
The Kennedy Center ceremony promises to be a mega-MAGA affair. Trump, the center’s chair who fired the center’s entire board and installed loyalists, said he will host. He also appeared to tease a possible name change for the complex to “TRUMP/KENNEDY CENTER” on Truth Social.
Stallone is firmly in the president’s corner and last year described him as the “second George Washington.”
Check out other comments about Trump’s Stallone intro here: