Your tax dollars are funding an institution that just handed its top humor prize to Bill Maher—a comedian the establishment can tolerate—while actual dissidents who challenge institutional power remain blacklisted and deplatformed.
Maher will receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday at the Kennedy Center, in what the Associated Press reports may be "one of the last major onstage moments" at the venue for several years. The Kennedy Center praised Maher for influencing American comedy "one politically incorrect joke at a time." But Maher's brand of dissent is the kind that still gets you a gala and a trophy. The kind that costs the establishment nothing.
The ceremony lands in the middle of a power struggle over the federally funded venue. After returning to the White House in January 2025, President Trump fired much of the Kennedy Center's leadership and installed a board of allies, naming himself chairman. His name went up on the building's iconic facade. A federal judge said that was illegal. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered the name removed and blocked Trump's plan to close the center in July for a two-year renovation.
The name is down. But according to the AP, the section of the building where the letters hung is now shrouded in a tarp. Kennedy Center lawyers told the court they have no plans to schedule new programming. The judge wants an update next month on how long the tarp stays. The last event booked for the Concert Hall is "The Freedom Gathering: A Musical Celebration" on July 3.
Both outlets note the awkward timing of honoring Maher, given his history with Trump. In 2013, Trump sued Maher for $5 million after Maher joked on Leno's show that he would donate to charity if Trump proved he was not "the spawn of his mother having sex with an orangutan." Trump dropped the suit. The AP reports their relationship "exploded again" earlier this year when Trump claimed on social media he wasted time having dinner with Maher.
Trump is not expected to attend Sunday's ceremony. Celebrities including Woody Harrelson, Arianna Huffington, and Jay Leno are expected to appear.
The Mark Twain Prize has gone to Conan O'Brien, Dave Chappelle, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, David Letterman, Carol Burnett, and Tina Fey since 1998. All establishment-approved. All safe enough for a taxpayer-funded stage.
The question isn't whether Maher deserves a prize. It's who never gets one—and why the institutions that take your money get to decide which voices count as dissent and which ones get disappeared.
