Business
A local LGBTQ+ nightclub was denied COVID-19 aid. Its owner is fighting back
On a Saturday night at North Hollywood’s Club Cobra, a drag queen dressed as Miley Cyrus lip-synced to “Zombie” by the Cranberries, with Halloween decor and disco balls dangling from the ceiling. Muscular go-go dancers grooved in a cloud of rainbow fog while patrons vibed to hits by Selena and Bad Bunny.
It wasn’t easy for the popular Latin LGBTQ+ nightclub to rebuild to this level of live entertainment after nearly going out of business because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The public health crisis shut the operation down for 18 months and left its owners hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. Making matters worse, the U.S. Small Business Administration has repeatedly denied Club Cobra’s application for COVID-19 relief money, alleging that the establishment offered services of a “prurient sexual nature.”
For Marty Sokol, 56, owner of Club Cobra, the lack of government assistance has been frustrating and surprising.
“We’re the good guys in this town,” Sokol said by phone. “We’re the place you have your birthday party at. We’re the place you bring your tía to. … It’s beyond insulting.” (Tía is Spanish for aunt.)
Sokol is one of multiple business owners who say they were unjustly denied money from the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program, launched by the federal government in 2021 to provide financial support of up to $10 million to arts and entertainment venues and promoters decimated by the pandemic.
Some have taken legal action against the SBA. And though the courts have sided at various points with the business owners, Sokol and others are still fighting for financial aid.
“We really feel wronged,” Sokol said. “If it wasn’t for our community, there’d be no way we would have survived.”
The issue isn’t limited to nightclubs. The Times also spoke with a North Carolina-based movie theater chain and a Tennessee concert promoter that have struggled to secure grants. Prominent cases — including a dispute between the SBA and exhibition basketball team the Harlem Globetrotters over $10 million in grant money — have drawn attention to the problems. (The court dismissed the Globetrotters’ complaint against the SBA last October.)
The SBA has also drawn scrutiny for awarding more than $200 million in SVOGs to companies with rich and famous owners — such as Post Malone, Chris Brown and Lil Wayne — while withholding assistance for others, according to a report by Business Insider.
“The overarching complaint has been there is a lack of transparency in the SBA’s decision-making process,” said James Sammataro, a Miami-based partner at law firm Pryor Cashman who has represented entertainment businesses in other SVOG cases.
“What [critics have] essentially said is it’s too subjective. … It’s applied unevenly, and the SBA has — intentionally or otherwise — created a hierarchy of who is more entitled to receive the grant money.”
The SBA declined to comment, saying it “does not provide comment on pending litigation.”
The SVOG controversy serves as a reminder of the lingering consequences of COVID-19 years after the pandemic first wreaked havoc on the economy and judicial system. Just as entertainment businesses were disrupted by the global health crisis, so too were the courts, Sammataro said, compounding the typical tedium.
“There’s no expedition that’s applied to these types of cases, even though you’re literally dealing with companies [whose] very lifeline may be on the line,” Sammataro said.
Marty Sokol at Club Cobra in North Hollywood.
(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)
Club Cobra has been serving drinks, DJ sets and live performances to the local LGBTQ+ community for more than a decade. Its sister establishment, Club Chico in Montebello, is coming up on its 25th anniversary.
During the COVID-19 shutdowns, Sokol and his team kept their business alive by streaming a socially distanced drag and go-go show on the subscription platform OnlyFans. Proceeds weren’t enough to dig Club Cobra out of debt, so Sokol applied for a $486,762 grant in April 2021.
When the SBA rejected Club Cobra’s application, Sokol appealed.
After some prodding, Sokol received an SBA email on Nov. 3, 2021 explaining that Sokol’s application was denied “at least in part” because Club Cobra “presented live performances of a prurient sexual nature” or derives meaningful revenue “through sale of products or services, or the presentation of any depictions or displays, of a prurient sexual nature.” In official materials regarding the SVOG program, the SBA outlines prurience as grounds for disqualification.
The SBA took issue with images of Club Cobra dancers in “seemingly sexualized” poses and “revealing” outfits posted on the business’ social media platforms. It also disapproved of the virtual drag and go-go shows that Club Cobra streamed on OnlyFans, calling them “erotic dance shows.”
Club goers enjoy each other’s company at Club Cobra in North Hollywood.
(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)
Sokol sued, accusing the agency of arbitrarily and capriciously refusing Club Cobra grant money while awarding SVOGs to similar establishments around Los Angeles — such as LGBTQ+ nightclub Reload Entertainment on Cahuenga and Silver Lake’s Los Globos. The SBA argued that it had conducted an informal review of the other establishments and determined that an additional “prurience review” was not necessary.
Sokol demanded that the U.S. district court in D.C. force the SBA to reconsider his application. The court concluded that the SBA failed to provide a “reasoned analysis for why these apparently similarly situated competitors were treated differently.”
Sokol said it was painful to see other nightclubs receive emergency aid while Club Cobra was refused money he could use to cover renovations, outstanding rent payments and other obligations.
“Watching them rebuild with great ease, we didn’t begrudge them,” Sokol said. “We just wanted equal treatment.”
In December 2022, the SBA vetoed Sokol’s application again, this time providing analyses of five “alleged competitors” and why they qualified for grants. The SBA reasoned that, for the most part, those establishments did not regularly post suggestive images or present live performances of a prurient nature.
Sokol filed another motion for summary judgment in May 2024. The court has yet to respond.
Audry Cobra performs during a drag show at Club Cobra in North Hollywood.
(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)
Another business in contention with the SBA is Golden Ticket Cinemas, a North Carolina-based theater chain. .
Golden Ticket Cinemas President John Bloemeke had opened his fifth and sixth locations when COVID-19 ravaged the entertainment industry
Bloemeke was able to secure grants for most of his locations, but not for two based in DuBois, Pa., and Rapid City, S.D. After Bloemeke challenged the SBA’s move to shun those theaters, the government agency offered the business owner roughly $500,000 — down from the roughly $2.8 million he asked for.
Patrons dance together at Club Cobra in North Hollywood.
(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)
Bloemeke filed complaints accusing the SBA of shortchanging Golden Ticket Cinemas and then failing to disburse those funds.
The SBA countered that Golden Ticket Cinemas wasn’t eligible for the full SVOG amount requested because those locations had allegedly been operational for longer than Bloemeke reported.
The court agreed with the SBA’s position that it was not legally obligated to disburse the funds. However, it also concluded that the agency’s logic for awarding a significantly lower amount was flawed and ordered the SBA to reevaluate the application.
According to Bloemeke, the SBA has yet to heed the court’s ruling.
“It was very frustrating,” Bloemeke said. “I mean, we have a nine-plex that’s only operating five of the screens because we’re still trying to get our head a little bit above water with some of this stuff.”
A go-go dancer performs at Club Cobra in North Hollywood.
(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)
Meanwhile in Nashville, Justin Roddick is still trying to snag a grant for his company, Concert Investor, which produces tours for up-and-coming musicians. Over the past 12 years, Concert Investor has helped launch the careers of Twenty One Pilots, Little Big Town, Kelsea Ballerini and other artists.
When acts stopped touring during the pandemic, Roddick’s business suffered.
“A year after COVID, we found ourselves with no other option other than to completely restart,” Roddick said. “So when I heard about the grant, I was very excited.”
Roddick was soon disillusioned. His request for about $5 million was denied multiple times, with the SBA deciding that Concert Investor did not control enough aspects of its productions to “meet the definition of a performing arts organization operator.”
A club goer dances in the crowd at Club Cobra in North Hollywood.
(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)
. The Concert Investor team alleged that the SBA unfairly altered the definition and moved the goal posts after the fact.
Initially, the court ruled in favor of the SBA. But an appeals court reversed that ruling in May 2024.
According to Patrick Corcoran, a representative for the businesses, the SBA was given a deadline of Dec. 11 to deliver a new decision. Depending on how the agency responds, Roddick might have to wait for the next Ballerini or Twenty One Pilots to come along and revive his touring business.
“It’s devastating to pay into the system and to believe it works a certain way … and then to have no action,” Roddick said. “It’s kind of unreal to me.”
The Na’vi won the battle of the box office this weekend, as “Avatar: Fire and Ash” hauled in a hefty $88 million in the U.S. and Canada during its opening weekend.
The third installment of the Disney-owned 20th Century Studios’ “Avatar” franchise brought in an estimated total of $345 million globally, with about $257 million of that coming from international audiences. The movie reportedly has a budget of at least $350 million.
Box office analysts had expected a big international response to the most recent film, particularly since its predecessor “Avatar: The Way of Water” had strong showings in markets like Germany, France and China.
In China, the film opened to an estimated $57.6 million, marking the second highest 2025 opening for a U.S. film in the country since Disney’s “Zootopia 2” a few weeks ago. (That film went on to gross more than $271.7 million in China on its way to a global box office total of $1.1 billion.)
The strong response in China is another sign that certain movies can still do well in the country, which was once seen as a key force multiplier for big blockbusters and animated family films but has in recent years cooled to American movies due to geopolitics and the rise of its domestic film industry.
Angel Studio’s animated biblical tale “David” came in second at the box office this weekend, with an estimated domestic gross of $22 million. Lionsgate thriller “The Housemaid,” Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Movies’ “The Spongebob Movie: Search for Squarepants” and “Zootopia 2” rounded out the top five.
The weekend’s haul likely comes as a relief to theater owners, who have weathered a roller coaster year.
After a difficult first three months, the spring brought hits like “A Minecraft Movie” and “Sinners” before the summer ended mostly flat. A sleepy fall brought panic to the exhibition business until closer to the Thanksgiving holiday, when “Wicked: For Good” and “Zootopia 2” drew in audiences.
Dear Liz: When I retired, I had a small 401(k) with about $12,000 in it. Instead of rolling that money into an IRA, I took a distribution and paid taxes on it. I had no immediate need for the remaining funds, so eventually I opened a new IRA account and deposited the money.
I now realize I should have put it in a Roth IRA so I wouldn’t face double taxation on the money. This is the stupidest thing I’ve done in recent memory. Is there any legal mechanism I can use to get that money out and into a Roth without paying taxes the second time?
Answer: You made a mistake, but probably not the one you think.
You can’t contribute to an IRA — or a Roth IRA, for that matter — if you don’t have earned income. So if you’ve fully retired, you should contact your IRA administrator and let them know you need to withdraw your “excess contribution” as well as any earnings the contribution has made.
If you contributed this year, you have until your tax filing deadline — typically April 15, 2026 — to remove the funds without penalty. If you contributed in a previous year, you’ll typically face a 6% excise tax for each year the money remained in your account.
Now, a warning about financial mistakes: They tend to become more common as we age. That can be incredibly unsettling, especially to do-it-yourselfers used to handling finances competently on their own. Retirement is a good time to start implementing some guardrails to protect ourselves and our money.
Hiring a tax pro would be a good first step. Anything to do with a retirement fund should be run past this pro first to make sure you’re following the tax rules.
Dear Liz: In response to a reader who asked about creating a will, you suggested options for low-cost online resources. That is great! But, I would encourage you to remind readers to designate beneficiaries on accounts and assets where that option is available.
While they should still have a will, many readers may not know that they can add beneficiaries to brokerage, checking, and savings accounts (in addition to IRA and retirement accounts) so that their assets will pass directly to the designated beneficiaries and not have to go through probate with the extra hassle, time and expense.
For those without a trust, designating beneficiaries may be the easiest way to pass on many of their assets. In California (and some other states), even houses may pass without probate with a transfer-on-death deed. Many readers may not know about the option to add beneficiaries, and you would do your readers a service by educating them about it.
Answer: Anyone adding beneficiaries to accounts needs to be aware of some major potential drawbacks.
A big one involves settling the estate. If all available funds are transferred directly to beneficiaries, the person settling the estate may not have enough cash to do their job.
Beneficiary designations can also result in unintentionally unequal distributions if there’s more than one heir, and complications if the beneficiaries die first or aren’t changed appropriately as life circumstances change.
That’s not to say that beneficiary designations are the wrong choice, but they’re certainly not a one-size-fits-all option.
Dear Liz: Your recent column about advanced directives said that people could get a free version at PrepareForYourCare.org. I found there is a charge. Is this for all online directives?
Answer: Prepare is a free site supported by donations, grants and licensing agreements. If you were asked to pay, you either clicked the donate button or weren’t on the correct site.
Liz Weston, Certified Financial Planner, is a personal finance columnist. Questions may be sent to her at 3940 Laurel Canyon, No. 238, Studio City, CA 91604, or by using the “Contact” form at asklizweston.com.
To understand how Mr. Trump has achieved this omnipresence, The New York Times reviewed the first 329 days of his second term, finding at least one instance each day when he attracted the public’s attention to himself and his actions.
The review encompassed more than 250 media appearances, more than 320 official appearances, and more than 5,000 Truth Social posts or reposts. The analysis shows that while Mr. Trump has lagged his predecessors in his number of official appearances, he has pursued a raft of innovative methods to force himself into the public consciousness on a daily, and sometimes even hourly, basis.
The battery of activity started from the moment he was inaugurated, when he traveled from the Capitol Building to the Capital One Arena to publicly sign a flurry of executive orders.
Since then, he has stayed in the public eye in part by doing things no president has ever done. High-stakes Oval Office meetings, like his negotiations with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, are held on-camera and broadcast live on global news networks. His Q.-and-A. sessions with reporters frequently last an hour or more.
He regularly airs his opinions – on social media, in discursive asides at rallies – about idiosyncratic subjects that range widely across the zeitgeist, from Sydney Sweeney’s sexy denim ads to the redesigned logo of the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain to the mysterious fate of the aviator Amelia Earhart, who vanished over the Pacific Ocean in 1937.
And his engagement with the news media has soared well beyond the start of his first administration.
Through Dec. 14, Mr. Trump took reporters’ questions on 449 occasions, compared with 223 during the same period of his first term. On average, Mr. Trump has interacted with journalists roughly twice a day, doubling his rate from 2017, according to Martha Joynt Kumar, a Towson University political scientist who tracks presidential press interactions. Mr. Trump limits which news outlets can ask questions at small events, but in sheer volume, he is the most media-accessible modern president, and far outpaces his predecessor, Joseph R. Biden Jr.
“Reporters will be in my office asking me for the president’s reaction to a breaking news story,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in an interview. “And I’ll just say to them, ‘I don’t know, why don’t you ask him yourself in 30 minutes?’”
President Trump’s media appearances have soared this year, more than doubling both the Biden administration’s and those of his own first term.
Finding the Cameras
Many of his public moments go viral online, like his diatribe about restoring the name of the Washington Redskins, or the A.I.-generated video meme he posted of himself dribbling a soccer ball with Cristiano Ronaldo in the Oval Office. They take on a life of their own, rippling across social media and dissected and amplified by influencers and mass media platforms alike.
The result is a president whose not-so-inner monologue is injected into our daily lives in myriad ways, when we are watching TV on the weekends or idly scrolling the web – a Greek chorus for our national narrative.
“He’s the most ubiquitous president ever,” said Douglas Brinkley, the presidential historian.
The media strategy aligns with his political strategy.
Dating back to his years as an outspoken real estate developer and reality TV star, Mr. Trump has relished being unavoidable for comment. But at age 79, he has been outdoing his younger self. And there is a logic to his logorrhea.
Mr. Trump’s allies often speak of the political benefits of flooding the zone: pursuing so many policies, ideas, and dramatic restructurings of the normal ways of governance as to overwhelm the system. “All pedal, no brake,” as Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s one-time adviser, has called it.
“We joke internally that he is our ultimate director of communications,” Ms. Leavitt said. “He has incredible media instincts, and he is the final decision maker on all policy, and he has been in a ‘flood the zone,’ ‘do as much as possible’ mindset since he walked into the Oval Office on Jan. 20.”
All presidents benefit from the awesome news-making powers of the office, with its agenda-setting influence over a dedicated global press corps. But Mr. Trump has outstripped his predecessors in whipsawing the public’s attention onto matters small and large – and limiting the level of scrutiny that any one shocking remark or policy proposal receives.
“People can really only focus on a handful of things a day,” said Bill Burton, a deputy White House press secretary under former President Barack Obama. “This attention flood is working for Trump because he is able to do an extraordinary amount of executive actions and very little of it can get attention.”
Or as Mr. Brinkley put it: “He plays to win the day, every day, around the clock.”
His commentary takes on a life of its own.
One of Mr. Trump’s political assets is his instinct for virality.
With a natural feel for the web, Mr. Trump has a knack for amplifying wacky memes and pop culture curios that can drive days of online discourse. Sometimes, coverage of his offhand remarks or late-night social media posts can crowd out the more significant, norm-shattering changes he is making to American governance.
Late one Friday night in May, the president posted an obviously A.I.-generated image of himself as the pope. It struck a nerve.
Mr. Trump had already courted controversy days earlier, after the death of Pope Francis on April 21.
“I’d like to be pope,” the president told reporters who asked about who should become the next pontiff. “That would be my number one choice.”
The comment disturbed some Catholics, who said the notion was crude and insensitive. That reaction seemed only to prompt Mr. Trump to double down, posting the A.I.-generated image to his Truth Social account days later. By the weekend it had become a cultural phenomenon, mocked on “Saturday Night Live” and called out by experts as an example of misleading A.I. content.
After Mr. Trump posts the A.I. image …
May 2
Trump posts A.I. image of himself as Pope
There is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr. President. We just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St. Peter. Do not mock us.
May 3
NYS Catholic Conference says “do not mock us”
May 3
“Saturday Night Live” covers fake image
May 3 Vatican asked about image, declines to comment
May 4
Cardinal Joseph Tobin of New Jersey criticizes image as “not good”
May 4
JD Vance defends Trump on X, calling it a joke … some Catholics were outraged, prompting a news cycle focused on the controversy …
5
Says “the Catholics loved it”
… before Mr. Trump suggested he had nothing to do with it.
Mr. Trump, who is not Catholic, had plenty of defenders, too. They said his commentary and the A.I. image were simply jokes, part of the president’s unique comedic style.
“As a general rule, I’m fine with people telling jokes and not fine with people starting stupid wars that kill thousands of my countrymen,” Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, wrote on X.
In his quest for attention, the president is often aided by a cottage industry of right-wing influencers and activists who are primed to syndicate, reinforce and defend whatever content he pushes out each day. For this conservative media ecosystem, Mr. Trump’s messaging and commentary are the raw fuel that drives clicks, shares and views.
On June 7, the president’s visit to a raucous U.F.C. fight – complete with a “Trump dance” entrance into the arena – generated an immediate spike in online interest, including about 50,000 posts on X. Five days later, when he promoted a “Trump gold card” visa, his announcement led to roughly 30,000 posts on X.
A barrage that distracts from bad news.
One pattern in Mr. Trump’s behavior: When his administration is faced with bad news, he launches a fusillade of distraction.
This can take the form of outlandish, out-of-left-field claims about political opponents. Or he might weigh in on a pop culture subject far afield from Washington politics – from the ratings of late-night hosts like Seth Meyers to the physical appearance of a megastar like Taylor Swift.
The events of July 2025 offer a case in point.
As the Jeffrey Epstein files returned to the news – along with speculation that Mr. Trump might appear in them – the president embarked on a breathtaking series of tangents. Mr. Trump claimed without evidence that former President Bill Clinton had bankrolled an effort by senior intelligence officials to frame him for a crime, mused about stripping the actress Rosie O’Donnell of her U.S. citizenship, and accused the singer Beyoncé of accepting millions of dollars to endorse his erstwhile rival, former Vice President Kamala Harris.
July 8
F.B.I. publishes memo about Epstein files On July 8, the F.B.I. said it would not declassify more Epstein files.
10
Claimed intelligence officials tried to frame him
10
Pushed to defund NPR and PBS
10 Directed ICE to arrest protesters
12
Threatened Rosie O’Donnell’s citizenship
15
Claimed Adam Schiff engaged in mortgage fraud Over the following days, Mr. Trump seemed to lash out in every direction.
On July 18, the Justice Department filed a request to unseal grand jury testimony about Mr. Epstein, again raising questions about Mr. Trump’s involvement. The president promptly lobbed insults at late-night talk show hosts, dismissed the Epstein affair as “fake news” and shared fresh claims about a supposed Obama administration plot to undermine him after the 2016 election.
July 18
Request filed to unseal grand jury testimony
On July 18, the Department of Justice filed a request — later denied — to unseal grand jury testimony.
20
Criticized Washington Commanders name
21
Called the “Russia hoax” the “crime of the century”
22
Called Epstein controversy “fake news”
22
Criticized Kimmel and Fallon
24 Criticized Federal Reserve chairman
Over the following days, Mr. Trump bounced from topic to topic.
On July 25, The Wall Street Journal published a major scoop: The paper had unearthed a risqué birthday letter that Mr. Trump had apparently written to Mr. Epstein in 2003. Mr. Trump responded with his attack on Beyoncé and revived his threat to revoke the broadcast licenses of TV networks. Then he announced the imminent construction of an enormous gilded ballroom at the White House, at a cost of $200 million. (He has since revised the cost upward to $400 million.)
Asked if there was a deliberate strategy to distract from negative news, Ms. Leavitt noted that every administration seeks to minimize unhelpful headlines.
“Yes, there have been times in which we’ve tried to do that, but also often it just happens naturally, because the president is willing to weigh in on so many subjects,” she said. “Sometimes it’s really not deliberate. It’s just him speaking his mind on whatever news cycle or news story is brought to him in that moment.”
He has added tricks to his arsenal.
Mr. Trump’s devotion to Truth Social mirrors the hair-trigger Twitter habit of his first term; on one recent December evening, he posted 158 times between 9 p.m. and midnight. And he has continued to appear on Fox News with certain preferred hosts.
But this year, he has added to his media arsenal by appearing in many more public spaces that fall outside of a president’s typical itinerary.
Mr. Trump has stopped by a Washington Commanders N.F.L. game, popped up in the New York Yankees locker room, attended the Ryder Cup golf tournament and the men’s tennis final at the U.S. Open, sat ringside at numerous U.F.C. fights, and traveled to the Daytona 500. He is the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl. When FIFA staged the Club World Cup final in New Jersey, Mr. Trump not only attended, but joined the winning team onstage for the trophy ceremony.
The net effect is a sense of inescapability, that no corner of American life remains Trump-free – which itself amounts to a potent expression of presidential authority and command. “His power, in part,” said Mr. Burton, the former Obama aide, “comes from the attention that people give him, or that he forces on them.”
Can it ever be too much?
In the fall of 2009, President Barack Obama appeared on David Letterman’s talk show, gave interviews to CNBC and Men’s Health magazine, and made the rounds of all five major network Sunday shows. Washington was abuzz about whether he was overexposed.
That debate sounds quaint today. But the question of whether a president can be too visible remains open.
“The public is being desensitized” to Mr. Trump’s omnipresence, argued Mr. Brinkley, the historian. “It starts becoming blather. The enemy for Trump isn’t Democrats; it’s the public being bored with the show.”
Ms. Leavitt said that if there was a risk to his ubiquity, “President Trump would not be president right now.” She added: “He is a businessman who speaks his mind and tells it like it is, and sometimes people don’t like that. But obviously the vast majority of our country does, or else he wouldn’t be in this office.”
During Mr. Trump’s first term, the public eventually tired of his frenzied pace. And in some ways, Mr. Trump appears to be slowing down physically as he approaches his 80th birthday in June (which he will celebrate in part by staging a nationally broadcast U.F.C. fight on the White House lawn). He has appeared to doze at some Oval Office meetings, and he is holding fewer formal public events than he did at this point in 2017.
Still, Mr. Trump and his team have embraced the everywhere-all-at-once nature of modern media. Average Americans, busy with work and family, do not tune in for daytime news conferences or Cabinet meetings. And 6:30 p.m. newscasts and local newspapers are no longer the primary vessels by which Americans learn about their commander-in-chief.
Instead, politics now suffuses our lives as a kind of ambient noise – via TikTok videos, social media posts, YouTube talk shows and family Facebook messages – never fully separate from our leisure pursuits. “Right now the game is attention, in terms of what’s culturally breaking through,” Mr. Burton said. “The fact that so much message exists is the point.”
Mr. Trump has both propelled this merging of culture and politics, and continues to strategically exploit it. In December, he became the first president to personally host the Kennedy Center Honors, comparing himself onstage to Johnny Carson and musing that he would do a better job than Jimmy Kimmel.
“This is the greatest evening in the history of the Kennedy Center,” Mr. Trump told the crowd. “Not even a contest. There has never been anything like it.”
His performance will air in prime time on CBS on Dec. 23.
Photo and video sources: Graham Dickie/The New York Times; Doug Mills/The New York Times; Roll Call Factba.se; PBS; Mauro Pimentel/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images; Kenny Holston/The New York Times; The New York Times; Annabelle Gordon/Reuters; Eric Lee/The New York Times; Fox; Cheriss May for The New York Times; Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press; Margo Martin, via Storyful; Mark Abramson for The New York Times; Global News; Al Drago/Getty Images; Fox News; Dave Sanders for The New York Times; Pete Marovich for The New York Times; Ted Shaffrey/Associated Press … Show all
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