Tom Cruise turned down Donald Trump’s offer of a Kennedy Center Honor

Tom Cruise is at that stage of his life and career where he’s picking up lifetime achievement awards at a steady clip. He will receive an honorary Oscar at this year’s Governors Awards. I imagine the Golden Globes will offer him the Cecil B. DeMille Award at some point. He’s probably in line for a Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in the next few years as well. Well, Tom has never been offered the Kennedy Center Honors before now. Before this year, the Kennedy Center usually picks people well into their 60s, 70s and 80s, so I would assume they always believed that they would have time enough to honor Tom. But now that Donald Trump and his MAGA cultists have taken over the Kennedy Center, Trump decided that this year, he needed to give an award to Tom. Tom said “nope.”

Tom Cruise reportedly declined to be among the first group of Kennedy Center Honorees during President Donald Trump’s second term. Cruise, 63, was offered but declined due to “scheduling conflicts,” several current and former Kennedy Center employees told The Washington Post on Wednesday, Aug. 13.

A spokesman for Cruise declined to comment to the Post. PEOPLE also reached out to a rep for the actor, but has not heard back.

Trump, 79, ramped up efforts to take control of the Kennedy Center arts complex earlier this year. George Strait, KISS, Michael Crawford, Gloria Gaynor and Sylvester Stallone make up the 2025 class of honorees. The ceremony will take place on Dec. 7 and will later air on CBS and stream on Paramount .

While unveiling the recipients at the Kennedy Center’s Hall of Nations, Trump said he was “very involved” in picking the group.

“I would say I was about 98 percent involved. They all went through me,” the president said, per the Post. “… I had a couple of wokesters. Now, we have great people. This is very different than it used to be, very different.”

[From People]

I think there was probably an assumption among the MAGA-installed board of the Kennedy Center that Tom would be open to it, especially coming from them. But no, Tom is not interested in this sh-tshow. It’s another reminder of just how much Trump has defiled – he handed out presidential medals of freedom to every Republican lunatic he could find, and now he’s trying to do the same with the Kennedy Center.

Also, during the announcement for the honors this week, Trump revealed why he’s been obsessed with the Kennedy Center – it’s because he wanted to be honored. He said: “Since 1978, the Kennedy Center Honors have been among the most prestigious awards in the performing arts. I wanted one. I was never able to get one. I waited and waited and waited, and I said, ‘The hell with it. I’ll become chairman.’ I’ll give myself an honor. Maybe… next year we’ll honor Trump.” This is pathetic.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.