Bill Maher will receive a comedy award at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday, in what could be a politically combustible evening at an institution under the control of President Trump.
Mr. Maher, the acerbic late-night host and a longtime critic of the president, will accept the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at a time when the arts center has become divisive in both Washington and the wider entertainment industry.
With Mr. Trump as its chairman, the center has become mired in a legal fight over the extent to which the president and his allies should be allowed to remake the institution in his image. Mr. Trump’s name was taken off the building’s marble facade this month after a federal judge ordered it removed, though the center has appealed the ruling.
A self-described “old-school liberal,” Mr. Maher regularly criticizes the president and his party on his HBO talk show, “Real Time With Bill Maher,” while also frequently blasting “woke” progressivism among Democrats. On his show in recent months, Mr. Maher has likened Mr. Trump to an emperor, mocked his approval ratings and recent deal with Iran, and said the president has done “things that are racist, misogynistic, anti-democratic and corrupt.”
Mr. Maher has agreed to be honored at the Kennedy Center at a time when many artists are unwilling to appear there.
Sunday’s event, which is scheduled to premiere on Netflix on July 21, will feature a lineup of celebrities who are expected to honor — and roast — Mr. Maher. Those guests include the comedians Louis C.K., Jay Leno and Whitney Cummings; the actor Woody Harrelson; the singer John Mellencamp; the businesswoman Arianna Huffington; and the sports commentator Stephen A. Smith, who was recently in a public spat with the president.
With a comedy career spanning more than four decades, Mr. Maher made his entry into late-night television in the 1990s with the show “Politically Incorrect,” which featured panels of guests from different industries and ends of the political spectrum. His next act, “Real Talk,” became known for its heated cross-party debates and biting monologues.
When it emerged in March that Mr. Maher had been chosen to receive the Mark Twain Prize, the Trump administration initially called it “fake news.” An administration official later said the situation had “changed after further conversations.”
Joking about the reversal on his show, Mr. Maher said a compromise had been reached with the White House.
“I am going to get it and then I’m going to give it to him — everybody’s happy,” Mr. Maher said, adding that he and the president had a “complicated relationship.”
It was not the first détente in what has largely been a contentious relationship between the president and the comedian.
Last year, Mr. Maher attended a dinner at the White House with Mr. Trump, drawing criticism from the left, particularly after Mr. Maher complimented the president for being “gracious and measured” during their meeting. Poking fun at their rocky history, Mr. Maher said he had asked the president to sign a list of insults Mr. Trump had used against him over the years. Among them: “sleazebag,” “third-rate comedian” and “low ratings dummy.”
The Kennedy Center has been under a microscope this month as it complies with a judicial order that undermined Mr. Trump’s agenda. A federal judge temporarily blocked the president’s plan to close the center for two years of renovations starting after Independence Day, saying that its board had not properly considered the potential consequences of such a decision. Officials there have yet to decide on a path forward.
Facing a June 12 deadline for removing Mr. Trump’s name from the building, the center directed workers to take down the 18 letters that had been added to the marble facade in December. They obscured the removal by first constructing a towering matrix of scaffolding covered in tarps.
Two weeks later, the tarps remain.
Their continued presence has prompted objections from Democratic lawmakers. But for the comedians set to gather at the Kennedy Center on Sunday, they may be tempting material.
