President Trump had tapped Tom Cruise as a recipient at this year’s Kennedy Center Honors, but was rejected by the Oscar-nominated actor, according to a new report.
The “Mission: Impossible” star told the commander in chief that he couldn’t accept the invitation to attend the gala at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, DC, on Dec. 7 due to “scheduling conflicts,” the Washington Post reported on Thursday.
Cruise’s offer decline was confirmed to the outlet by “several anonymous sources” at the Center.
The 63-year-old actor released his latest “Mission: Impossible” installment, “The Final Reckoning,” in May and is currently working on several projects for release in 2026.
Cruise would have led a star-studded list of honorees for this year’s event after Trump named five performers he had personal fondness for, which included actor Sylvester Stallone, rock band Kiss, disco singer Gloria Gaynor, British actor Michael Crawford and country music star George Strait.
The “Top Gun” actor has strayed away from entering the political realm, choosing not to speak about either party and recently sidestepping a question about Trump.
During the press junket for his latest “Mission: Impossible” film, Cruise was grilled by a Korean reporter over the effect Trump’s tariffs had on the movie production.
“We’d rather answer questions about the movie. Thank you,” the actor responded.
Trump, the chairman of the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center, will attend the event as the host.
He avoided the honors during his first term after artists said they would not attend out of protest.
The 79-year-old bucked the tradition of announcing the 2025 honorees — the first class for the Center under Trump’s stewardship — via press release and instead chose to reveal his pickings during a press conference on Wednesday.
Trump gushed over Stallone and his portrayals as the protagonist in “Rambo” and “Rocky” and called Gaynor’s 1978 disco hit “I Will Survive” “one of those few that get better every time,” and promised that Kiss was “going to do something very special” during the ceremony.
Trump revealed he was “heavily involved” in the selection process and filtered out some of the potential recipients.
“I turned down plenty. They were too woke. I had a couple of wokesters,” Trump said during the announcement.
“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. They don’t watch anymore. That used to have 45 million people watching,” Trump said.
Trump called the honors “among the most prestigious awards in the performing arts,” joking he would have to honor himself for his past work on “The Apprentice” next year.
