Kennedy Center Honors 2026 Honorees Named, Show Moves

The Honors are scheduled for December 7 at Capital One Arena in Washington, a sports and concert venue that is a long way from the performing arts hall that has hosted the event for decades. The reason is an ongoing fight between President Donald Trump's administration and a federal court over his plans to renovate the building and to attach his name to it in some form.

Each of the five brings a long résumé. Mamet is widely seen as one of the leading playwrights of his generation, known for the sharp, clipped dialogue of Glengarry Glen Ross and American Buffalo. Mandrell is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, and her catalog includes hits such as Years and Sleeping Single in a Double Bed.

Foster ranks among the most successful producers of the past fifty years, having worked with acts as different as Chicago and Natalie Cole. Anka wrote or co-wrote songs including My Way, along with the theme used on The Tonight Show during Johnny Carson's time as host. Garcia's screen work includes The Untouchables and The Godfather Part III, as well as the HBO film For Love or Country.

Politics is hard to ignore with this year's group. Several of the honorees are on friendly terms with the president or have spoken openly about conservative views. Mamet told Fox News last year that he used to think of himself as a committed liberal before finding his conservative side. Anka is a longtime friend of Trump and once rewrote My Way with MAGA-themed lyrics, and Foster has performed for Trump in the past.

The Honors were created in 1978 and have recognized artists from nearly every corner of the performing arts. For many years, presidents from both major parties attended the ceremony, even when they disagreed with the politics of the people being celebrated. Barbra Streisand and Warren Beatty were honored under Republican George W. Bush, while Charlton Heston, a prominent conservative, was recognized during Democrat Bill Clinton's presidency.

Trump skipped the event during his first term, but his involvement since returning to the White House has gone much deeper. He removed the center's board of directors and replaced its members with loyalists, who then made him chairman. Last year he announced the honorees himself and hosted the show that celebrated them, a level of personal involvement that few earlier presidents ever showed.

This year the center has spent months with its stages empty. The building has been closed while the legal dispute over the renovation and the naming proposal plays out, which left the Honors needing a home elsewhere. Holding the ceremony in an arena solves a practical problem, but it also breaks a long link between the awards and the building that gave them their identity.

In a statement, Trump said the center was proud to honor this class and to carry on a tradition that has shaped the institution for almost five decades. The wording stresses continuity, even though the circumstances around this year's event are anything but routine.

How artists and audiences respond will be worth watching. The Honors are usually remembered for tributes and performances by fellow entertainers, and for the sight of political and Hollywood figures sharing one room. With a new venue, a closed building and a court case still unresolved, the evening in December may feel quite different from the ceremonies people are used to seeing.

For now, the five names stand on their own merits: decades of songs, stage works, productions and film roles that have reached huge audiences. Still, the setting and the political backdrop mean this class will be discussed as much for the surrounding circumstances as for the careers being celebrated, and the answer to how the ceremony is remembered may depend on how the renovation fight ends.

Honors Leave the Building for the First Time

The 2026 Kennedy Center Honors will recognize Paul Anka, David Foster, Andy Garcia, David Mamet and Barbara Mandrell, with the ceremony set for December 7 at Capital One Arena instead of the Kennedy Center itself.

The move comes as President Donald Trump's push to renovate the building and add his name to it remains tied up in court, leaving the center closed to performances and the traditional ceremony without its usual home.