Donald Trump Admits He Didn't Prepare Prior to Hosting Kennedy Center Honors: 'You Want to Be a Little Bit Loose'

Donald Trump admitted he didn’t prep before hosting the 48th Kennedy Center Honors.

On Sunday, December 7, the president hit the red carpet at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, D.C., alongside First Lady Melania Trump, and made it clear he was leaning into an off-the-cuff approach for the big night.

When asked how he organized his remarks, Donald shrugged it off.

"Maybe I haven't prepared. Maybe you want to be a little bit loose,” he said, adding moments later, "You know what you have to be? You have to be yourself."

He kept the same energy as he spoke to reporters, saying, "I have a good memory, so I can remember things, which is very fortunate. But just, I wanted to just be myself. You have to be yourself. Johnny Carson, he was himself."

He previously revealed in August that he had agreed to host the show and said at a State Department dinner that he was doing it “at the request of a certain television network.” He also predicted the December 23 broadcast on CBS and Paramount+ would draw record ratings.

Donald then presented several of this year’s honorees with their medals in the Oval Office, including Gloria Gaynor, KISS and Sylvester Stallone.

But even after saying he has a “good memory,” Donald still struggled to say Sylvester’s name correctly during the presentation the day before.

The 79-year-old appeared to skip the “t” in the actor’s surname — twice — when awarding him the Kennedy Center Honors medallion. He introduced his longtime friend as “a friend of mine, a wonderful person, a really spectacular person, one of the true great movie stars there are,” before reading his name as “Sallone.”

The legendary actor didn’t seem fazed when Donald repeated the mispronunciation while placing the medal around his neck, but social media definitely noticed.

Fans jumped online to poke fun at the mistake, with one person tweeting, “Trump is so out of it that he can’t even pronounce Sylvester Stallone’s name… yesterday as he presented Stallone with his Kennedy Center medal he mispronounced his last name twice as ‘Sallone.’”

Another joked, “Why does every Trump intro sound like he’s discovering the person as he’s speaking?”

A third added, “Sly Salone he says.”

People also spotted two bandages wrapped around Donald’s right hand during the dinner event.

It marked the third time in a week he’d appeared with Band-Aids, after showing them earlier during a December 2 Cabinet meeting.

“I’ll let you know when something’s wrong,” he said earlier in the week when asked about it.

The coverings were visible again when Donald met with the presidents of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo shortly afterward.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later addressed the recurring bruising, explaining, "President Trump is a man of the people and he meets more Americans and shakes their hands on a daily basis than any other president in history. His commitment is unwavering and he proves that every single day.”

The White House previously linked the discoloration to his aspirin use and the sheer volume of handshakes he does each day.

Karoline, 28, also noted the bruising was “consistent with minor soft tissue irritation from frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin, which is taken as part of a standard cardiovascular prevention regimen.”

She added that Donald has been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, which the Cleveland Clinic describes as a condition where "the veins in the legs do not function properly, leading to poor blood flow back to the heart."