FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump gestures while he poses for a picture at the presidential box at the Kennedy Center, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 17, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

Donald Trump used part of his Kennedy Center Honors appearance to call people in the audience "miserable" after unfavorably comparing them to Rocky Balboa.

In three appearances across the night, Trump paid tribute to Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone, who he made ambassador to the film industry at the start of this year, as well as the rock band KISS, Gloria Gaynor, Michael Crawford, and George Strait. In one appearance, Trump quoted Stallone’s famous on-screen character, Rocky Balboa, and used the quote as a launchpad for criticising the audience, AP News reported.

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The president said, "Some of them have had legendary setbacks, setbacks that you have to read in the papers because of their level of fame. But in the words of Rocky Balboa, they showed us that you keep moving forward, just keep moving forward."

"I know so many of you are persistent. Many of you are miserable, horrible people. You are persistent. You never give up. Sometimes I wish you’d give up, but you don’t." Trump would claim he had not prepared very much for the Kennedy Center Honors appearance.

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He said, "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." The Kennedy Center has since seen ticket sales for future events slump after the president’s appearance.

According to internal sales data obtained and reviewed by CNN, ticket sales for the Kennedy Center’s performance of “The Nutcracker” topped out at around 10,000 seats across the production’s seven performances, around a 33% drop off from the around 15,000 ticket sales for the production seen in 2001 through 2024.

A person with knowledge of the internal workings of the Kennedy Center told CNN that even if the performance of “The Nutcracker” were to have sold out this year, the costs for the performance would still outweigh the revenue from ticket sales.

“Selling every ticket to ‘The Nutcracker’ is absolutely not paying your bills,” the person told CNN on the condition of anonymity. “We have 19 unions here. The production costs are huge.”