President Donald Trump was the target of jokes on the Kennedy Center stage on Sunday night as one comedian took aim at the presidentās questionable connections.
Comedian and TV host Bill Maher was being honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, and it wasnāt long until the presidentās 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 Trumpās connections to Jeffrey Epstein.
āI actually heard Trump may come tonight but he couldnāt make it,ā Cummings said, according to Deadline, adding, āHe got caught in sex traffic.ā
Trump has denied knowing anything about the late sex offenderās 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 āseeing Dana White, Donald Trump and Kid Rock all together at the White House really proves there is no God.ā
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment on Cummingsā 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 Trumpās attempt to change the Centerās name to include his own was unlawful.
In May, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper struck down the presidentās attempt to change the Kennedy Centerās name to The Donald Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on the grounds that he failed to seek congressional approval.
āCongress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,ā Cooper wrote in his 93-page memo.
The white tarp erected over the centerās name by workers overseeing the removal of Trumpās name from the facade was still in place on Sunday night.
Jay Leno told reporters that the tarp was āhilariousā as they walked down a red carpet bearing the centerās original name. Maher, meanwhile, labeled it āhysterical.ā
Maher spoke to CNN on the red carpet about the insults the president has hurled at him, as well as the White Houseās outrage at his being named as the recipient of the Mark Twain Prize and its attempt to block it.
āYou know, the last 4 or 5 times heās been public about me, itās all back to yelling and screaming,ā Maher told CNNās Camila DeChalus, adding, āIām this, Iām terrible, Iām a lunatic liberal, Iām a lunatic, Iām a lightweight, Iām a jerk. So weāre back to that. Itās okay.ā
Despite that, Maher explained that heād rather āthe channels be open,ā and that fighting and yelling are just the presidentās āway of talking to people.ā
He also joked that he wouldnāt be surprised if the White House attempted to prevent him from receiving the award once more before the show started.
āAnything could happen,ā he told CNN.
Maher and Trump have often clashed in the past, although relations appeared to be improving after the comedianās 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 āhighly overrated lightweightā and a āweak and ineffective person.ā
A number of politicians from both sides of the aisle were in attendance, including a member of Trumpās Cabinet, who went out of his way to defend Trump.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters of the presidentās takeover of the Kennedy Center that he believes Trump is āgonna try his darndest to make this building shine, and I think heās gonna be successful.ā
āHeās used to these courts always fighting with him, but in the end he wins, and we all know that.ā
