Actor Tom Cruise reportedly turned down a Kennedy Center Award from President Donald Trump.
The Mission Impossible star, 63, was offered the award but declined due to ‘scheduling conflicts,’ according to The Washington Post.
Anonymous Kennedy Center employees told the outlet of the actor’s move to shun Trump, with the president said to have been actively involved in picking him.
The president instead unveiled Sylvester Stallone, rock band KISS, Michael Crawford, Gloria Gaynor, and George Strait as being bestowed with honors.
Cruise, a member of the Church of Scientology, is known to shy away from politics, opting to use his high profile to support the military, veterans and his religion.
Instead of the Kennedy Center revealing the names through a press release as usual, Trump announced the honorees himself.
While unveiling the recipients at the Kennedy Center’s Hall of Nations, Trump said he was ‘very involved’ in picking them.
He also said that he would hosting the event later this year, in his first term he didn’t even attend the ceremony.
Anonymous Kennedy Center employees told the outlet of his absence from the event on Wednesday, with Trump said to have been actively involved in picking him
Instead of the Kennedy Center revealing the names through a press release as usual, Trump announced the honorees himself
Trump said the country was tired of award ceremonies like the Academy Awards because they were too ‘woke.’
‘Look at the Academy Awards. It gets lousy ratings. Now it’s all woke. All they do is talk about how much they hate Trump, but nobody likes that,’ he said.
Trump seized control of the center after taking office for his second term, appointing himself as the chairman and appointing fourteen new members to the board.
In handing down the awards, he praised Stallone, a supporter of his, as one of the best actors of his generation.
‘Nobody else could have done what he did. They tried and it didn’t work out too well,’ he said pointing to the films Rambo and Rocky as monumental achievements.
‘I’ll never forget I was a young guy and I went to see a thing called ‘Rambo,’ he recalled. ‘I said, “This movie is phenomenal. What the heck”.’
Trump praised Crawford as ‘an international sensation’ for playing ‘one of the greatest roles in the history of Broadway’ as the Phantom of the Opera.
Cruise is seen here posing alongside Mary Parent, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Steve Golin, Keith Redmon and Leonardo DiCaprio at the BAFTA awards in 2016
He went on to describe Gaynor as ‘one of the most revered singer of the American disco era,’ praising her song, ‘I Will Survive’ as an ‘unbelievable song.
‘I have heard it, like everyone else here, thousands of times. And it is one of those few that get better every time you hear it,’ he said. ‘And no one can sing it like her.’
He revealed that he always wanted a Kennedy award, calling them one of the ‘most prestigious’ awards in show business.
‘Next year we’ll honor Trump, okay?’ he joked.
Breaking with longtime tradition, none of the honorees was from the fields of dance, jazz or classical music.