President Donald Trump was the target of jokes on the Kennedy Center stage on Sunday night as one comedian took aim at the presidentâs questionable connections.
Comedian and TV host Bill Maher was being honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, and it wasnât long until the presidentâs name was mentioned. The president himself was not in attendance.
Guest speaker and comedian Whitney Cummings was the first to take the stage, and she seized the opportunity to skewer the president, immediately making a reference to Trumpâs connections to Jeffrey Epstein.
âI actually heard Trump may come tonight but he couldnât make it,â Cummings said, according to Deadline, adding, âHe got caught in sex traffic.â
Trump has denied knowing anything about the late sex offenderâs crimes and maintains he was never involved in any wrongdoing, but many have expressed concern about his friendship with convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, with whom he was friends for nearly two decades until the pair fell out in the mid-2000s.
Cummings also poked fun at the controversial White House dinner Maher attended alongside Kid Rock and UFC CEO Dana White last year, joking that âseeing Dana White, Donald Trump and Kid Rock all together at the White House really proves there is no God.â
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment on Cummingsâ jokes.
The joke was among a number of embarrassing moments for the president.
The ceremony was the first event held at the Kennedy Center since a federal judge ruled that Trumpâs attempt to change the Centerâs name to include his own was unlawful.
In May, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper struck down the presidentâs attempt to change the Kennedy Centerâs name to The Donald Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on the grounds that he failed to seek congressional approval.
âCongress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,â Cooper wrote in his 93-page memo.
The white tarp erected over the centerâs name by workers overseeing the removal of Trumpâs name from the facade was still in place on Sunday night.
Jay Leno told reporters that the tarp was âhilariousâ as they walked down a red carpet bearing the centerâs original name. Maher, meanwhile, labeled it âhysterical.â
Maher spoke to CNN on the red carpet about the insults the president has hurled at him, as well as the White Houseâs outrage at his being named as the recipient of the Mark Twain Prize and its attempt to block it.
âYou know, the last 4 or 5 times heâs been public about me, itâs all back to yelling and screaming,â Maher told CNNâs Camila DeChalus, adding, âIâm this, Iâm terrible, Iâm a lunatic liberal, Iâm a lunatic, Iâm a lightweight, Iâm a jerk. So weâre back to that. Itâs okay.â
Despite that, Maher explained that heâd rather âthe channels be open,â and that fighting and yelling are just the presidentâs âway of talking to people.â
He also joked that he wouldnât be surprised if the White House attempted to prevent him from receiving the award once more before the show started.
âAnything could happen,â he told CNN.
Maher and Trump have often clashed in the past, although relations appeared to be improving after the comedianâs dinner at the White House last year.
The truce was short-lived, however, with the president launching multiple attacks against Maher via Truth Social in the intervening months, including describing him as a âhighly overrated lightweightâ and a âweak and ineffective person.â
A number of politicians from both sides of the aisle were in attendance, including a member of Trumpâs Cabinet, who went out of his way to defend Trump.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters of the presidentâs takeover of the Kennedy Center that he believes Trump is âgonna try his darndest to make this building shine, and I think heâs gonna be successful.â
âHeâs used to these courts always fighting with him, but in the end he wins, and we all know that.â
