South Park is known to have made multiple jokes at the expense of President Donald Trump over the years. The show recently took a dig at Trump and his recent Kennedy Center renaming.
Earlier this month, the White House announced that the John F. Kennedy Center’s name has been changed to “Trump-Kennedy Center.” South Park writer Toby Morton had predicted that Trump would be renaming the building after himself way earlier. Trump’s renaming of the John F. Kennedy Center snowballed into a controversy and how. Critics and masses alike slammed Trump for the move.
South Park writer Toby Morton opened up to The Washington Post about Trump’s recent Kennedy Center controversy. He said, “As soon as Trump began gutting the Kennedy Center board earlier this year, I thought, ‘Yep, that name’s going on the building. The rest followed on schedule.”
The South Park writer added, “It’ll absolutely reflect the absurdity of the moment. Lots of surprises. Some things are truly hard to parody, though.”
The name changes of the center prompted the writer to add a dash of “unavoidable” satire as inspiration. “The Kennedy Center has always been a cultural institution meant to outlast any one administration or personality. It’s meant to honour culture, not ego. Once it was treated like personal branding, satire became unavoidable,” Toby Morton said.
Speaking of Kennedy Center Honors, the 48th edition of the event was hosted by Donald Trump, and it witnessed a 35% year-over-year decline in ratings.
Last week, the preliminary Nielsen data mentioned that the Kennedy Center Honors had a 4.1 million viewership this year, with Donald Trump doubling up as a host. Per Programming Insider, “The Kennedy Center Honors” on CBS drew its smallest audience ever on the night of December 23, 2025, averaging an estimated 2.65 million viewers.”
According to preliminary Nielsen data, “The Kennedy Center Honors” on CBS drew its smallest audience ever on the night of December 23, 2025, averaging an estimated 2.65 million viewers. To put that in perspective: the 2024 broadcast averaged 4.1 million … https://t.co/go5Gjk2I4t pic.twitter.com/KkDJaR8CFs
— Programming Insider (@PIUpdate) December 24, 2025
Before the event even aired, Trump boasted about his hosting skills, and he said, “We’ve never had a President hosting the awards before. This is a first. I’m sure they’ll give me great reviews… If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be President.”
Among his other big claims was a Truth Social post, where he said that he could consider hosting as a full-time job. “Tell me what you think of my ‘Master of Ceremony’ abilities. If really good, would you like me to leave the Presidency in order to make “hosting” a full-time job,” read Trump’s post about his Presidency and full-time hosting.
Trump: “Tell me what you think of my ‘Master of Ceremony’ abilities. If really good, would you like me to leave the Presidency in order to make “hosting” a full time job?” pic.twitter.com/rwHxdWRKVM
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 23, 2025
Contrary to the ratings, Donald Trump made big claims that the event hosted by him would garner a separate fan base and soaring reviews. “This is the greatest evening in the history of the Kennedy Center – not even a contest. There has never been anything like it, and the show is already getting rave reviews,” The Guardian quoted Donald Trump as saying during the show.
In his signature style, Donald Trump also said this at the event, “Now, I will say that I guarantee the fake news is going to give me horrible – ‘He was horrible as an emcee. Don’t ever let that happen again!’ But I guarantee one thing: we’re going get big ratings today. This place is hot.”
