TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Addresses a Kennedy Center Honors Dinner in Washington, 12.6.25
[Video]
President Trump: Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. What a great group this is. Your team is doing very well, Bob. Good quarterback. Good coach. It always helps. Having a good coach and a good quarterback is a very good thing, historically. I wanna thank Secretary Marco Rubio, who's my friend and a very talented man who works very hard and his wonderful wife, Jeanette, for hosting us this evening as we -- thank you, Jeanette.
Great job. As we celebrate the 2025 Kennedy Center's honorees, and they are great honorees. Sylvester Stallone. There he is, look at him. He got stuck in traffic, but he made it. He wasn't gonna miss this under any -- we heard he was walking up. I said, "Okay, now we can start." You look great. Thank you both very much, Jennifer.
Thank you very much. George Strait. Thank you, George. King of Country. That's great. Gloria Gaynor. Where? Fantastic, yeah. You look so well. Thank you very much, Gloria. The legendary Michael Crawford. Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Michael. That's some job. Thank you very much, Mrs. Crawford, for being here with your two beautiful daughters.
Really an honor to have you. I've, I, I don't wanna say how many times I've seen you in Phantom. But, you know, when you have a great artist, it's true with paintings, it's true with music, it's true with dance. Every time you see it, it gets better. And you see things you've never seen before, but I've seen you many times, and there's never been anybody like you.
Thank you very much, Michael. Congratulations. And the truly legendary rock band, Kiss. Thank you, fellas. Thank you. That's great. Thank you very much. And this is really much, uh, really, look at it, pure talent, a lot of talent as has ever been assembled under one roof. We've done something that they've never done before, and I'll be doing something that hasn't been done before.
The President of the United States is hosting, at the request of a certain television network. And I'm doing it because I feel it's very important that we all get out and do something, and if that can make a difference, that's tremendous. But we have such wonderful people, and I don't mind doing it. But these are some of the greatest of all time, and congratulations to all of you, and thank you very much to Tiffany and Company.
The, uh, they've really done a beautiful job with the medals. And, uh, I wanna thank your beautiful families. Every one of you, you brought large numbers of your families here, and we appreciate that. And, uh, they appreciate you, I can tell you. A very special thanks, as well, to our terrific Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, along with Executive Director Rick Grenell.
The Board of Trustees has been amazing. Uh, it's, I, it's gotta be the hottest board, or, I don't know, the Supreme Court is a pretty heart. I always say the Supreme Court, the US Senate, the NFL Owners Committee, I think that's pretty good, too. But I think the Board of the Kennedy Senator is turning out to be, we have so many people that wanna get on. I have so many enemies now because they wanna be on the board, and I'm sort of saying you can't have it. Can't, can't get anymore.
But, Rick, you've been fantastic. And Ambassador Sergio Gor, who's now going to India. Good luck. We may have, may never see you again. 1.5 billion people. Think of that. 1.5 billion. Can you handle that, Sergio? Huh? I think you can. You can handle anything. But you're gonna be dealing with a very special leader, as you know, a friend of mine.
And, uh, you're gonna do very well. He's very happy that you're going to be the ambassador, so good luck. You're gonna be making your journey in two weeks. Good luck. I may never see him again. It's very sad. Also, I wanna thank Secretaries Howard Lutnick, Doug Burgum, FCC Chairman, Brendan Carr, my daughter, Tiffany, and her wonderful husband, Michael, and so many other distinguished guests.
We have so many people here, senators. We have other Secretaries, and I'm just seeing some of you in the crowd. You are a good-looking crowd. I also wanna thank everyone here tonight who's so generously supported our effort to restore and revitalize the Kennedy Center. It was in rough shape, uh, to a lesser extent, but the White House was in rough shape.
You know, we're bringing the White House back, uh, room by room. And they sort of laugh when they say, "Well, the Lincoln bedroom, we had to fix it up." It wasn't looking too good, but we fixed it up, leaving it the way it was, but fixed up. It's in tippy top shape. You know, I always used to say, "Tippy.
It's gotta be tippy top." But you had a lot of other presidents that weren't into that. I am. I've always been into it. The Oval Office has reached a new level. The cabinet room, everyone wants to see the cabinet room and it's so beautiful now. We took some of the paintings that were downstairs in vaults.
They have big vaults. They have 2,000 paintings, over 2,000. We have great curators, seven of them. And they love the place. Some of them have been there for 40 years, and if they don't like you, you don't get the painting you want. [Laughs] You don't get the Declaration of Independence brought up into the Oval Office.
A couple of other presidents suffered without it because they said, "I'm not gonna be able to do it." But they, uh, they've been great. But we have, uh, tremendous artwork being brought up and has been brought up from the wall. So it was sitting for a hundred years, 150 years downstairs under the White House, and now we have it on walls throughout the building.
And those walls, before we put them up, we make sure those walls are in perfect shape. I say, "You gotta make sure these walls are up before you do anything." And we've done a lot of work. We've redone, uh, great marble floors that were beat to hell. We've done not good floors that were out of, uh, one by one boxes from certain stores that are not very good.
They're not -- they shouldn't be there. Those floors should not have been there. Uh, we've replaced them with, uh, uh, the most beautiful marble statuary marble. They call it in Italy, statuario. Great white and black marble that forms Greece and big parts of Italy. And Italy during a time when Italy was extremely strong and Greece, when Greece was Greece, and they, uh, they had that, and we now have that in the White House replacing one by one tiles that were not good.
But we've fixed the White House and we've fixed the Kennedy Center. The Kennedy Center has some, uh, work to be done. We've worked very hard on it, actually. I spent a lot of time there with contractors. I mean, I go around. I, I have two jobs. I have a construction job, which gives me, which is really like relaxation for me because I've been doing it all my life.
But we're fixing the Kennedy. I said, "Yeah, you need a new roof." They said, "Sir, there's a lot of water coming down." You know, they didn't know you need a new roof. It's been there for like 45, 50 years and, uh, we're doing everything. We're doing brand new air conditioning. Uh, Carrier has been so incredible.
They made a donation, a big donation on the ballroom. We were bidding out the ballroom and Carrier came along and they said, "Uh, sir, we'd like to contribute the air conditioning for the ballroom." It was like $17 million. It's a lot of air conditioning and heating. And, uh, a great steel company came along and said, "Sir, would like to contribute the steel." Uh, it's a big steel.
That's a big account. And we had Caterpillar Tractor come along and said, "Sir, we'd like to contribute all of the tractors, all of the excavation equipment, and all of the lifts and generators and everything else you have in the ballroom, because it's got a lot of very complex equipment that you wouldn't think of." So I wanna thank Caterpillar and others.
Others are gonna be made public, but they've, uh, they've really been very gracious and we're having the same thing happen at the Kennedy Center. They view it as a very important thing and we have marble experts, some of the greatest marble people and anywhere in the world and they're taking this marble that was in such bad shape that everyone said, "We have to rip it down.
We have to take it down." No, the marble is great. Big, beautiful slabs. You don't get them like that anymore. It's very hard. Giant, they call them the giant slabs. They don't make them. But with, uh, tender loving care, and I always say, "Remember, if you take 1/100th of an inch off the top of the marble, you have brand new marble." People don't know that.
They see the marble and they say, "Oh, the marble's stained or the marble's gone." I say, "No, no. If you go just a little bit, if you take just a little bit of that skin off and you get it down, you g- -- it's called grinding. You grind it down just a hundredth of an inch. You have a brand new slab of marble and you've saved a little money to put it marble, like millions of --" Uh, the marble job was gonna cost $59 million.
They thought we had to take all the marble off the building and replace the marble with new marble. It was gonna cost 59 to -- we had prices from 59 to 75 million. I think I'm gonna spend a million bucks, have it made beautiful. And what you replace it with was not nearly as good as what we already have. So it's sort of, I don't know, I like to tell you those little construction because we talk politics all the time and I like politics too.
I said somebody to somebody the other day, "Am I a better politician or construction real estate person?" And they didn't know how to answer that question. [Laughs] I'm not sure how to answer it either, if you wanna know the truth, but I actually get great relaxation out of fixing, uh, the White House and fixing the Kennedy Center.
And it takes a little time, but not really, because it's time that some people wanna rest. I don't really wanna rest, I wanna do things. And to me, it relaxes me. It's almost like, it's really almost better than resting. And, uh, we're bringing these places, these places of great distinction. We're bringing them back, and the Kennedy Center is gonna be incredible.
Within 10 months, I mean, you're gonna see, we've already done tremendous amounts of work, but within 10 months, you're gonna see something that you really be amazed at. You know, one of the things with the Kennedy Center, because this is really honoring that tonight, but the sound is great, and if you don't have good sound, Lincoln, I don't wanna say anything bad about Lincoln Center, but they've had a lot of problems over the years with sound.
A lot of you, some of you on that board, you're here tonight. There's very distinguished board also. But as you know, they have, at Lincoln Center, they have the same problem and they've rebuilt one of their great buildings because the sound was always bad and they can't get it right. They can't get it right.
It's a very hard thing to do. There's a little luck to that, you know, you have to be a little bit lucky. And, uh, some of the greatest opera houses in the world in Europe were built 200 years ago, 300 years ago and they had no sound engineers in those days, but they did have a lot of marble and stone. And marble and stone make from, make really for great sound.
I see we have Gloria, we have KISS, we have George Strait, we have -- think of it. We have the great Michael Crawford, and they know what I'm talking about probably better than anybody else in the whole world. But it's, uh, sound is a big deal. And if you don't have it in a building, you pretty much never have it. They rebuild it. They spend millions and millions of dollars.
They take it apart. They put up new walls, they put up new seats, they put up new everything, and they open it up, and it's a disaster. And the one thing with Kennedy Center, they have great sound. They've always been known to have great sound. And we're putting up, uh, large slabs of mar, marble in couple of the great halls.
And it's already, we did some testing, it's made it as good as it is, it's made it even better. Marble can do that. So we've reviewed, we reviewed every, everything you have to review and reversed the decline of this cherished institution and the Kennedy Center, uh, was really, uh, boy, the money they spent over the years.
They spent so much money and you couldn't see where the money was spent. We're still trying to find out where did they spend all that money, but they didn't know what they were doing and it's a shame. And we almost lost that building. That building was very closed, structurally and every other way. We've totally reversed it and now it's, it's gonna be in great shape for another, literally for 100 years.
It's gonna be in great shape. It's gonna be in better shape than ever before. So we've, uh, done a real job. We've secured historic funding for the Kennedy Center and we got that in the great Big Beautiful Bill. That's the, a bill that everybody said was impossible to get passed. They said, "You can't do it. It's too big." It was supposed to be 17 bills.
I said, "Let's put it in one because the Democrats are absolutely crazy." And I have some Democrat friends here, but they're crazy. [Laughter] And they might've approved a couple of them, but most of them they wouldn't. I said, "If we put it all in one, there's something for everybody." And we got it approved with a pretty small majority.
We had the majority, but pretty small majority we got it approved. And we got some support. We got a little support from some of the rational Democrats. But, uh, one of the things we were able to do is, uh, help, help very much the Kennedy Center. We got so many other things, our largest tax cuts in history.
No tax on, think of this, tips, no for the, for the workers, no tax on tips, no tax on social security for our great seniors, no tax on overtime. Nobody thought that was possible. You're allowed if you buy a car, these people don't know about buying cars 'cause you buy cars, probably you're not going out to borrow a lot of money, the group in this room.
But you know what, middle income people, they never had this before. If you go out and borrow money, which almost everyone does to buy a car, you're now allowed to deduct the interest for income tax purposes. Never happened before. It's a great thing. We have so many things in the great Big Beautiful bill, but one of the things we have is we're gonna rebuild our city, Washington, DC. We now have one of the safest cities in the country.
It was a horror show when I came here. A year and a half ago, this city was so dangerous. A year ago was so dangerous. We've been there 10 months and now we're setting records for safety. We've had virtually no crime. We had terrorism two weeks ago, week and a half ago, horrible terrorism, but, uh, it sounds like we were doing so well that the terrorists felt they didn't wanna see us do very well, but we have right now the safest capital.
We have a safer capital as anywhere in the world, and we had one of the most unsafe capitals in the world. Thank you. And I walked through the White House, and I'll see, especially young women say, "Sir, thank you very much." And I know immediately what they're saying. They're not thanking me for the eight wars that we've stopped.
They're not thanking me for even the tax cuts or any of the other things we've done. They're thanking me because they can actually walk to the White House, they feel safe now in the city, and they are -- and I want to thank our National Guard, they've been unbelievable. The National Guard has been great. And Kristi and Tom Homan and all the people that work so hard on that.
And as you probably notice, we just went into New Orleans and we went into Memphis, Tennessee. We went in in a light way because we have a lot of opposition there with these people. They, they want to have crime. I mean, it's the craziest thing, Chicago. But we've brought down crime in just giving it a little, a little dose of what we do really well.
Uh, but we'll at some point just, uh, go in and do it exactly the way we want. We won't have any crime and we'll have very little crime in Chicago, almost none. We'll stop it everywhere. We do stop it everywhere. And some -- we had a governor, a very good governor from Louisiana, Jeff Landry just called and he said, "Please do me a favor.
Would you send the troops into, uh, New Orleans? It's really gotten bad." And I said, "We'll do it." We just sent them in and within about three days, everyone said it's like a different place. And, uh, he's a smart governor. And then some of the governors, you'd be surprised at some of the ones that are calling, but we're stopping crime.
I never, I said we were gonna win, during the campaign, we're gonna stop crime. Nobody knew we were gonna stop it to this extent. Nobody knew we were gonna have a border, where in six months, not one person came into our country illegally. Think of that. So we went from the worst border where millions and millions, 25 million people over the course of the four years, came into our country, many from prisons and gang members, drug dealers, mental institutions.
They came into our country. Getting them out, have to get them out. Murderers, we have 11,888 murderers. Many of them are now either out or in jail because they'll murder again. Uh, more than 50% of those people murdered more than one person. But we took a, we took a very strong stand and people are really liking it. And by the way, drugs coming into our country by sea, down 94%. Okay?
Down 94%. And I'm trying to figure out who the other 6% is because frankly, I think they are the most, they gotta be the bravest people. Who are the 6% that are still trying to come in? But, uh, down 94%. And we're gonna start that same process on land because we know every route. We know every house. We know where they live.
We know everything about them. They killed 300,000 people last year. And that's like a war. That's like a terrible war. Not gonna let it happen. So, uh, we're doing a job that nobody else could do, but we're building this institution back to what it should be and the nation's premier venue for the arts. And we're gonna see that because DC is now a safe place.
People wanna be here. The restaurants are opening. You know, if you go back a year, nobody wanted to go to restaurants. They lost 40% of their restaurants, they closed. They had no business. And the restaurants that were open were doing no business. And people felt safe, unsafe, even sitting, waiting for a meal.
People would come in and do bad things. We don't have that anymore. And now restaurants are open. You can't even get into a restaurant now in Washington DC. It's a beautiful thing to watch. And we're showcasing our country. And we're always gonna have it because the, the capital of the United States of America has to be a safe and beautiful place, and we're fixing it. We're fixing the roads.
We're removing the graffiti. One of the most beautiful marble you've ever seen. We're removing granite. I like granite better on the outside because it's real easy, but the marble is very porous. Uh, during the Biden administration, they sprayed a lot of red paint on a lot of white marble. And you still see it, you know?
They worked real hard to get it off, but it goes down deep. It's a disgrace what they were allowed to do. It was also a disgrace that they allowed millions of people into our country illegally and people that were not people that we wanna have. They weren't people that could love our country. We want people coming into our country that can love our country.
So, uh, the generosity, the generosity of so many outstanding donors, and Rick mentioned some of them, but we've had so many people that just are so generous, it's been really incredible. And as you know, this is America's 250th anniversary. So we have all of these people, and next year, but next year's right around the corner, and that's gonna be big.
Then we have the World Cup coming, and we have the Olympics coming. And, you know, I got the Olympics, and I got the World Cup. I cannot take credit for getting 250 years. That was just, we sort of lucked out. [Laughter] I tried to do that, but it didn't work. It lucked out, but the 250 is gonna be incredible.
In fact, we're having, on June 14th, we're having a fight. All of the greatest champions in the world, the UFC fight, they're building an arena in front of the White House, if you can believe it. Then the, the, uh, like 6,000 seats, and then, uh, they're gonna build it for the fight. They're gonna have the greatest champions of the world coming, and they're gonna have over 100,000 people out.
They're putting screens all over certain parts of Washington so everyone can see it. I don't think there'll be anything like it. It'll be on a Sunday night, June 14th. Uh, Flag Day happens to be my birthday, but I didn't do it for that reason. Just, it actually --[Laughter] Sir, we like the June 14th date.
I said, "You know, it's my birthday." They didn't know it, but they picked it. But it's, uh, I'll take a little heat on that, but it's not that. But I will tell you, that's gonna be some. Everyone's asking me for tickets for the UFC, but it's gonna be great. They're gonna have the greatest champions in the world all fighting that night.
The great Dana White does a great job and he wanted to do it. And the, the White House will be the background of the fight. There'll never be anything like this. There has never been, and there never will be anything like that. But a few hours ago, I had the tremendous privilege of presenting the 2025 Kennedy Center honorees with their medallions, their beautiful medallions from Tiffany, right in the Oval Office.
And we thought we'd do it here. We thought we'd do it at different places and maybe pick the one that we liked the best. And we said, "No, that hit so well." And the Oval Office, right, Michael? The Oval Office, he said it, "I've never seen anything like this. There's something about the Oval Office that's special.
It's really just special." Even in its poorer state, it was still the Oval Office, and we appreciate it, and we have great respect. So many things happened in the Oval Office. And they got to see the beautiful cabinet room, which we've brought back to life like it should be. Beautiful, it's a beautiful room, and it's really a beautiful room once again.
Actually, more beautiful than it ever was. It was never like this. But the American people are proud of our country. We're proud of our beautiful White House and we're proud of our beautiful Kennedy Center. And now you have it at the top, top of the line. The lives they've led, these wonderful people that are here tonight, the legacies that they've forged to become integral part of American's priceless cultural heritage.
All of the people that we honor tonight are such beautiful words. I mean, you're, you're priceless. It's a cultural heritage that you've created, each of you in a very different way. Most of you in a very different form catering to different people, frankly. But you add it up and it's 100% of our population.
Each of them has given us treasures that will be passed down to every future generation. And I don't think you even appreciate what you've done. I don't think you've really appreciate your greatness. Decades and even centuries from now, people will still watch and admire the films of Sylvester Stallone. There's nobody else can do those films.
Nobody can do it. You know, he started Rocky, he had no money at all, and he had nothing. He had a car that barely couldn't, you know, he left New York. I think a place called Brooklyn, right, Sly? Brooklyn? Good place. A lot of good people come out of Brooklyn. But he got that car to just get him there and he stayed in his car and he slept and he wrote this script called Rocky, along with about 20,000 other people.
Everybody writes a boxing script, right? But for some reason, they loved it. And Sly didn't have 10 cents, had nothing. And they offered him, like, a lot of money. They offered him, I think, a half a million, some number that he never even thought was even possible. And he said, "No, I don't want it. I want to make sure that you're casting the right person to play the role." And they said, "Well, we have stars." And they brought in stars.
But the stars didn't have good bodies. [Laughter] They were flabby. They were not really boxers. And Sly would look at some of these guys, big names. He was intimidated in one way, but then the other way, he said, "That guy can't play the role." And we won't say the names of the people, but they're really top actors.
And for some reason, here's a guy that had no contacts, know anything, but they loved, this one studio in particular, loved the script. And they were going crazy over it. And they brought in the top people and Sly said, "Let me see you box." And they just have a guy and -- [Laughter] He said, "He can't play the role." He had a lot of flab around the upper chest area.
It's supposed to be solid like a rock. [Laughter] And then they brought in another one, another one, another one. Then finally, they looked at Sly and they said, "Oh, man, you're in good shape. You think you could play the role?" He said, "I'll play the role. I'm not gonna let somebody else play it." And he was actually willing.
He, he thought they'd have somebody, but he said, "That's not a boxer. That's not a fighter. These are good movie stars. Keep their shirt on, but they're good movie stars." [Laughter] But they're not fighters, right? And he took that role, and the rest is history. The rest is history. But think of it, how many people would turn down, you know, a tremendous, enough money.
He probably thought he could live for the rest of his life. He probably could have if he had to. But who would turn down that kind of money? And he did it. He didn't wanna have anything to do with it. He wanted it to be right. And, uh, who would then think of it as, isn't it just about the largest grossing movie?
It's like, there's never been anything like it. Rocky, the whole Rocky series. It's been incredible. And then you had a little thing called Rambo. I loved Rambo, Sly. I'll tell you. [Laughter] I loved Rambo. I got to watch Rambo one time. I said, "I wonder what this is all about." I went to a movie theater a long time ago when I used to go to movie theaters.
I'd like to go again. I loved them. I loved the popcorn. [Laughter] And it was Rambo. I knew nothing about it, but I liked Sly. So I said, "Let's go see it." After about four minutes, I said, "This movie is great." Yeah, Rambo, I think Rambo gave Rocky a little run too, if you want to know truth. Loved it. We loved all of them.
But really, uh, a legend. And each of the people that are being honored, they're treasures that really will be passed down to future generations. Decades and centuries from now, people are gonna be looking at your work. They're gonna be seeing every one of you. Your work is so incredible. And they'll be thrilling to the performances of Sly and the performances, it's all on tape, of the great Michael Crawford and Phantom.
It's all on tape. You know, thank goodness for tape, because if you couldn't see him, if you, if you would miss that, if you wouldn't see Michael Crawford, the way he moved, the voice was magnificent, but the way he moved and the hands, the whole thing, it's just, there'll never be anything like it. But we have it on tape from every different angle.
So guess what? You're lucky. [Laughs] There are a lot of great people that never, they've never, they've never been preserved that way, but you've been preserved. And people are gonna be looking. People are gonna be watching that and comparing in other plays and in other, other forms and other venues. They're gonna be looking and comparing others to you.
And I don't think they're ever gonna find anybody like you, Michael, okay? I know something about that business. I don't think they'll find anybody like you. The look, the movement, the whole deal, and then the voice, right? The voice, that beautiful voice. And they'll still know the unforgettable songs of George and Gloria and Paul, Gene, Peter, and the late great Ace Frehley who's represented by his daughter.
And she was crying like so she was crying. And all that meant to me is one thing. She loved her father, right? She loved her father. And the guys loved him. You know, that band has stuck together for a long time. I've known a lot of bands and they don't last too long. They, they're gone much to the detriment of themselves, actually.
But these guys get along and I was watching, uh, I love to watch people. And I was watching them and they really respect each other and they like each other. I just congratulate you. What a job. What a job you've done. What a great job. Thank you all. I've known Gene for a long time and I've known the others for shorter periods of time, but they're real talent.
And tonight they're really appreciated. The world has seen it and the world is now watching. They're watching. The whole world is watching this. So thank you very much on the fill em sets, Broadway stages, and in sold out arenas around the globe these exceptional individuals have spent their lives making the most of their incredible God-given talents.
They have talent. They have talent. The great Gary Player, he hits shots. He's 90 years old. He still plays good. Shot a 70 with me the other day. He's 90. We're playing pretty far back too. He's incredible. You think Biden could do that? I don't think so. Can't, can't lift the club. But Gary, uh, was demonstrating shots and one guy was having a very hard time, couldn't get out of a sand trap.
Gary's known as the greatest sand player, number one ever. He got down in the US opens. Two US opens back to back. He got down 69 out of 71 times. I would say that's good. Even if you don't know anything about golf, you'd have to say that's good. But he got down and this poor man that I was with, who was, he was blessed with talent, but not golf talent.
And he cannot get out of a trap. It was sad to watch. And, and Gary says, "You don't understand. Just --" And he dropped five balls, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping. Every ball right next to the hole, this guy, oh. And he tried it, he hit the ball a foot. He hit the next one over the green, like by 50 yards.
The whole thing was a disaster. He said, "Well, here's the problem. I've got talent and you don't." And that's, and that's what that's true about you. You have talent. These five groups and people, they have great talent. And, uh, if you don't have talent, to be honest with you, there's not a damn thing you can do. You can get a little better.
But if you don't have talent, there's not a damn thing you can do about it. All you can do is try and find something else where you do have talent. But I just wanna thank that, you know, you shared these gifts because you're really sharing a great gift with the world and maybe tonight more so than any time in your career you've shared tonight because tonight the whole world is focused on you.
I want to, uh, celebrate all of this together and tomorrow we pay tribute to them magnificently and they're gonna see something really special and it's so great to have this at the Kennedy Center. I wanna thank, uh, as you know, FIFA for the award they gave me, but more importantly for choosing the Kennedy Center.
That was, we had over a billion people watching the, uh, they were choosing the teams, which team is playing the next team. And you can imagine the thrill. But Johnny, who's the, who's the commissioner, he's a fantastic guy. And I guess you have to say he's like the biggest guy in sports, Bob. He's big. He's got, he's, he's saying we have 58 Super Bowls.
I don't know if that's true, but let's say we have a few of them. But they have a lot of, a lot of, uh, matches and it's all taking place here. You know, don't forget, when I, I made that deal during my first term and then I made the deal for the Olympics. And I said, "Man, it's so bad because they were made six years away." So I said, "I won't be president." And then I got screwed and I said -- [Laughter] -- I said, "Let's do it again." And I did it again.
We did great the second time, unbelievable. We won by a lot. But the third time, we won by 10 million votes. But it was a COVID year, a lot of things happened and, and, you know, crooked, a very crooked election, a lot of crooked people. But, uh, I said, "We gotta do it again. That's why we never give up." These people have never given up. They don't give up. Bob Kraft never gave up. Did you ever give up, Bob?
I don't think so. Bob Kraft, have you ever given up, Bob? Look at him. He had a lousy team last year. He didn't know what to do. [Laughter] And now he ends up, he's leading the NFL again. I'm sure your other owners are extremely happy for you though, Bob, right? [Laughter] They're thrilled. They're just thrilled.
But, uh, no, people don't give up. The, the real winners need the talent, but don't ever give up. But as chairman of the Kennedy Center, as President of the United States, and as a true fan of each of these incredible celebrities, but great performers, much more than a celebrity, you're much more than a celebrity, it gives me tremendous pleasure to congratulate them once again and say thank you for your incredible career.
Thank you for gracing us with this wisdom and this genius that you have. That's what it is. Every one of them. And the First Lady, who you saw yesterday and you're gonna see again tomorrow, we're gonna be having a good time. Uh, she congratulates everybody. She's focused on Christmas decorations at the White House, where she's done a great job.
And actually, the press has treated us very good. The first year, the trees were white and beautiful, and the media said, "Why white?" [Laughter] So I said, "Listen, do something that's more --" [Inaudible] So the next year we did green. And they said, "Why aren't you doing white? We like the white better." [Laughter] The next year we did red.
We got killed with the red. [Laughter] But, uh, so we went through four years of that stuff. Nobody does it better. And this year, it's just so good that they actually said the White House looks phenomenal, when you add up all of the other things that we've done to it. You know, um, I tell people, for the first four years, I was the hunted.
So I didn't have a lot of time to fix up the floors, to redo the Lincoln bathroom. I took a little heat. It was the worst job, it was done in, uh, many years ago. It was done during actually the Truman administration with very cheap green tile. That was in Lincoln. Now we have it done in beautiful, beautiful Paradisio marble.
It's all book matched and so beautiful. But, and people said, "Oh, why is he wasting time?" That's not wasting time. That's saving our heritage, you know, many, many things like that. It's saving the heritage of this country, and it's so, and it's so important. But I'm just gonna leave you with, uh, the fact that this is a very brilliant and very important group of people that are in this room tonight.
A lot of people wanted to be here and we, the ballroom's very small, Marco. I mean, this is like -- [Laughter] You know what this is? About one tenth, uh, this is section A of what's being built. (laughs). [Laughter] This is like a little corner. [Laughter] But, uh, but it is beautiful. And I, and I have to say this, Marco Rubio is a great Secretary of State.
And, and I think he's gonna go down as, you know, look, we've had some good ones, we've had some bad ones too, real bad ones. We've had some real dummies and some real brilliant great ones. I think Marco, if we keep going like this, he's gonna go down as the greatest Secretary of State in the history of our country.
So Marco, thank you very much. Thank you very much. And, and I just wanna thank everybody. It's a very, uh, special journey that we're on. It's a beautiful journey, and we're beautifying our country. We're strengthening our country. We're respected again as a country. We're so respected now, like never before.
And, uh, whether it's Europe, Japan, I mean, every one of them, they have tremendous respect. They used to laugh at us not long ago. A year and a half ago, they were laughing at us, and they're not laughing anymore. They respect us like they've never done before. Thank you very much, everybody, for being here. It's a great honor to have you. Thank you very much.