STORY: U.S. President Donald Trump hosted actor Sylvester Stallone and other celebrities at a dinner at the White House on Saturday (December 6), after presenting Kennedy Center Honors to a slew of actors and musicians earlier in the day.

Trump did not attend events at the Kennedy Center during his first term but has taken a keen interest in it during his second, vowing to overhaul an institution he and his supporters view as too liberal.

During a speech, the Republican leader lauded Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and border czar Tom Homan's work in his administration's recent mobilisation of the National Guard in U.S. cities, notably New Orleans, Memphis and Chicago.

Democratic leaders of those cities have accused Trump of manufacturing pretexts for militarized shows of force to punish political foes.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

SHOWS: WASHINGTON D.C., UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 6, 2025) (UNRESTRICTED POOL - Access all)

1. U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, SPEAKING TO U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, MARCO RUBIO, AT TABLE

2. DINNER IN PROGRESS

3. TRUMP WALKING UP TO PODIUM

4. TRUMP SPEAKING

5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

"I want to thank our National Guard. They've been unbelievable. The National Guard has been... (PAUSES FOR APPLAUSE) and Kristi (Noem) and Tom Homan and all the people that worked so hard on that. And as you probably noticed, we just went into New Orleans and we went into Memphis, Tennessee. We went in in a light way because we have a lot of opposition there with these people. They want to have crime. I mean, it's the craziest thing. Chicago. But we've brought down crime and just giving it a little, a little dose of what we do really well. But we'll at some point just go in and do it exactly the way we want. We won't have any crime and we'll have very little crime in Chicago, almost none."

6. TRUMP WALKING OFF STAGE

7. TRUMP SHAKING HANDS WITH ACTOR, SYLVESTER STALLONE