President Trump suffered the awkward gaffe at the Kennedy Center Honors medal presentation.

19:12, Sun, Dec 7, 2025 Updated: 19:15, Sun, Dec 7, 2025

President Trump Welcomes The 2025 Kennedy Center Honorees To The White House

Trump suffered the mishap in front of a room full of stars (Image: Getty)

President Donald Trump endured an embarrassing teleprompter blunder whilst presenting medals to entertainment legends.

On Saturday, Trump attended the Kennedy Center Honors medal ceremony. This year's honourees include actor Sylvester Stallone, singers Gloria Gaynor and George Strait, rock group Kiss, and performer Michael Crawford.

Things were running smoothly until a technical failure occurred during his introduction of Strait.

"We have country music legend -- got it? Turned off. Got it?" Trump declared, gesturing towards an off-camera teleprompter. He proceeded by taking a look at the notes in front of him, yet the uncomfortable incident sparked mockery from people watching.

"He's arguing with the teleprompter again. The teleprompter is winning," one X user remarked, reports the Irish Star.

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"Got it? Turned off. Got it? Grandpa is beefing with the stage equipment now," they added.

This marks Trump's second teleprompter incident within recent days.

During Trump and First Lady Melania's lighting of the National Christmas Tree in Washington, D. C. earlier this week, the President appeared to hurry the countdown as his teleprompter unexpectedly became visible.

The Trumps counted rapidly, with Melania Trump performing the tree-lighting ceremony. Trump then delivered a brief address, presumably from the prompter, expressing gratitude to the military and particularly the National Guard, mentioning Sarah Beckstrom, the officer killed in a targeted attack.

He notably suffered a major technical blunder whilst delivering his address to the UN General Assembly, as his teleprompter malfunctioned mid-speech.

Although the incident created an uncomfortable pause, Trump swiftly recovered, informing the audience: "I don't mind making this speech without a teleprompter, because the teleprompter is not working."

Nevertheless, the technical failure appeared to linger in his thoughts longer than his initial response suggested.

During a subsequent press conference, Trump revisited the incident, explaining: "I'm looking at my teleprompter and the thing is dead... stone cold dead."

The former president then praised his off-the-cuff delivery, declaring: "But I made a speech. I actually got good marks. It was more a speech from my heart. I think it was maybe better in certain ways because it was from the heart."