The Trump-Kennedy Center?

“I have a good memory, so I can remember things, which is very fortunate,” a tuxedo-clad President Trump said on the red carpet before hosting the Kennedy Center Honors. “But just, I wanted to just be myself. You have to be yourself.”

To open the show, Trump stood behind the presidential lectern and invoked the name of Johnny Carson, who, he said, was a master improviser like him. Trump hadn’t prepared much. He didn’t need to. “This is the first time a president of the United States has ever hosted the event. I don’t know why.”

It’s actually kind of an interesting question. Ronald Reagan, of course, would have made an excellent Kennedy Center honors host. Both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama enjoyed a stage and an audience in their primetime years, and George W. Bush could have smirked his way through some one-liners and artist introductions. Other presidents would have been awful: imagine Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter or George H.W. Bush trying to host an awards show. We all know Joe Biden couldn’t have done the job. “They tried to get Biden to do this four years in a row,” Trump said on Sunday night. “I would have watched.”

But for Trump, who, more than anyone ever, loves being president, hosting a show like this is his final form. He appeared on stage three times: at the beginning, at the end and before the intermission. The show also included segments, taped from the White House, where Trump introduced the individual honorees. “This is fantastic, isn’t it?” Trump said after the intermission. “It is just so incredible… This is the greatest evening in the history of the Kennedy Center. Not even a contest. There has never been anything like it. The show is already getting rave reviews. I guarantee you the fake news will say he was horrible as an emcee.”

The fake news has said no such thing yet, but that’s partly because only a handful of fake news reporters were present on Sunday night. The actual ceremony will air on CBS and Paramount+ on December 23. This broadcast will ruin the Christmases of the types of people who like to warn us on social media that democracy is in danger.

Trump referred to the building as the “Trump-Kennedy Center,” and, after an awkward response to that comment, said, “I’m sorry. This is terribly embarrassing.”

“Well, we’re really having a good time tonight,” he continued. “So many people I know in this audience. Some good. Some bad. Some I truly love and respect. Some I just hate.”

By now, we all know the somewhat odd list of honorees by heart: Sylvester Stallone, Michael Crawford, George Strait, Gloria Gaynor and KISS. Anyone who had “President Donald Trump honors KISS at the Kennedy Center” on their bingo card 40 years ago would have gotten a one-way ticket to Bellevue. But here we are.

America is back, Trump said, invoking the name of a disco queen whose biggest hit came 45 years ago. “Stallone said it strongly in the movie. It’s all about winning, if you move forward that’s how winning is done. The winners are exactly what these great legends are about. They also know how to go through hell.” The honorees, he said, are “giants” in their genres. “Many of you are horrible, miserable people but you never give up.”

The show closed with Cheap Trick performing a cover of KISS’s “Rock and Roll All Nite” that had the audience on its feet, and Trump, presumably, doing the Trump Dance. “They probably don’t like me very much,” Trump said. “But we don’t care. We want bigness. We don’t care if they like Trump or not.”