WASHINGTON (AP) — Comedian Bill Maher will be awarded the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday in what might be one of the last major onstage moments at the Kennedy Center for the next several years.
The award has been presented since 1998 as a way to recognize those who have made significant contributions to humor and commentary in the United States. In announcing the honor in March, the Kennedy Center described Maher as someone who has long influenced American comedy “one politically incorrect joke at a time,” a reference to the late-night show “Politically Incorrect" that he hosted for much of the 1990s and helped lift him to prominence.
Previous winners include Conan O’Brien, Dave Chappelle, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, David Letterman, Carol Burnett and Tina Fey. Woody Harrelson, Arianna Huffington and Jay Leno are among the celebrities expected to appear at the Sunday night ceremony.
President Donald Trump, who has spent much of his second term reshaping the performing arts venue, is not expected to attend.
The awards come at an awkward moment for the Kennedy Center, long one of the few relatively nonpartisan institutions in Washington. Shortly after Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, the Republican president fired much of the center's leadership and installed a board largely composed of allies. It named Trump as chairman and his name was added to the building's iconic facade, prompting a legal battle that became a proxy fight over the extent of the president's power.
Trump later said the Kennedy Center would close in July for a two-year renovation. But U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper upended those plans in May by ruling that Trump's name was illegally added to the building, ordering it removed. The judge also has blocked the closure.
The legal fight has turned into a saga that could be easy fodder for jokes at the Twain gala.
Trump's name has come down from the building, in compliance with the judge's order. But the part of the building once covered with letters spelling the president's name is now shrouded in a tarp. The full closure is on hold. Lawyers for the Kennedy Center have said they are not planning for now to build out programming.
“The Court’s order did not affirmatively require the Board to reschedule programming that had previously been cancelled or to seek new programming,” the lawyers wrote in a court filing this month.
Cooper has asked for an update next month on how long the tarp will remain on the building. For now, the final event scheduled for the Kennedy Center's well-known Concert Hall is “The Freedom Gathering: A Musical Celebration” on July 3.
Given Trump's sway over the Kennedy Center, Maher's selection for the award is notable because the two men have long had a fraught relationship.
Before he entered politics, Trump filed a $5 million lawsuit against Maher in 2013 for breach of contract. Appearing on Leno’s “The Tonight Show,” Maher said he would give $5 million to the charity of Trump’s choice if Trump could prove he was not “the spawn of his mother having sex with an orangutan.”
Trump claimed that when he provided his birth certificate, Maher did not pay up, prompting the lawsuit. Trump ended up dropping it.
The Trump-Maher relationship exploded again earlier this year, when the president claimed on social media that he wasted time sitting down for a meal with the comedian last year.
“He came into the famed Oval Office much different than I thought he would be,” Trump wrote online. “He was extremely nervous, had ZERO confidence in himself.” Trump said the comedian admitted he was “scared.”
Maher, during his April 11 episode of “Real Time,” described the dinner. He said Trump was “gracious and measured” and not like the “person who plays a crazy person on TV.” Maher said he was not scared.
He took time in his “New Rules” segment to point out the various Trump policies he liked, including the “mass removal of stone cold criminals” and making NATO members pay “their fair share.”
“I may be the last person from the lunatic left that is still an honest broker when it comes to you,” he said.
Maher hosted Vice President JD Vance on his show heading into the weekend. Vance, who is promoting a book, said he watches the show and laughed at Maher's monologue “even though you were making fun of me.” During the interview, Maher pressed Vance on the Iran war, immigration enforcement and election conspiracy theories.
“You guys have two outcomes that an election can be,” Maher told Vance. “Either we win or they cheated. That s—- has to stop.”
Maher's selection for the award was itself the subject of drama.
After The Atlantic reported in March that Maher would win the award, the White House pushed back hard. White House communications director Steven Cheung said on social media that the story was “literally FAKE NEWS.” Trump's press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, also called the initial report “fake news” and said Maher “will NOT be getting this award.”
The situation evolved after further conversations between the Kennedy Center and event organizers.
Beyond Maher, other celebrities expected to appear on Sunday have had up-and-down relationships with Trump. The president and Huffington, for instance, have feuded at points for more than a decade.
Stephen A. Smith, the sports analyst who is among those expected to appear at the ceremony, recently knocked Trump for attending the NBA Finals earlier this month in New York. Smith, who has signaled political ambitions of his own, called the move “selfish” and “narcissistic.”
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is seen, as its sign remains covered by a tarp, Friday, June 19, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran again launched drone and missile attacks Sunday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to new U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic Republic, and threatened a “complete halt” in negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks.
Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without Iran's direct oversight sparked the days of crossfire and have imperiled the talks for a lasting ceasefire. A multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Saturday it would expand a route near Oman for inbound and outbound traffic, setting up a new flashpoint with Tehran.
The global community has long considered the strait an international passageway, despite its location in Iran and Oman's territorial waters. In recent days, Iran has twice attacked vessels going through a route on the Omani side in an evacuation effort backed by a United Nations agency.
Iran insists that it alone must govern the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf that once carried a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated the claim on Sunday.
“Any attempt to establish new or separate arrangements from those currently being carried out by the Islamic Republic of Iran will only lead to further complications, delay the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and increase the level of tension,” Araghchi said.
The United States and Iran have been debating the terms of an interim deal, including shipping arrangements on the strait, the removal of a U.S. blockade on Iranian ports and sanctions on Iran and the future of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Under the memorandum of understanding signed this month, they have 60 days to iron out details.
The interim deal is meant to end fighting on all fronts before certain key issues can be discussed. Continued fighting in Lebanon, where an Israeli soldier was killed by Hezbollah fire early Sunday, also threatens the agreement.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard claimed responsibility for the attacks in Bahrain and Kuwait.
Kuwait's military said air defenses intercepted Iranian drones and missiles just after the U.S. strikes in Iran. Kuwait, which hosts a major U.S. military base, said it intercepted two ballistic missiles. There were no reports of injuries or damage.
Bahrain's Interior Ministry said the Iranian strikes damaged a residential building near the international airport and no one was killed. The ministry released photos of an eight-story building, its top floor destroyed and windows blown out.
Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, whose base came under repeated attack during the war. The damaged building was not near the fleet's headquarters.
Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry denounced what it called “a dangerous escalation that reveals that what Tehran is doing is not a passing act, nor an isolated incident, but rather a deliberate approach and a systematic pattern of repeated aggression."
The U.S. military’s Central Command said it struck Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” following an attack on a ship at sea Saturday. The Panamanian-flagged tanker Kiku carried crude oil for the state-run energy company of Qatar, a key mediator between Iran and the U.S.
President Donald Trump on social media accused Iran of violating the ceasefire and warned of a point where the U.S. may no longer be reasonable “and will be forced to militarily complete the job.”
“If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!” Trump wrote.
The exchanges of fire began when an Iranian drone struck a merchant vessel off Oman on Thursday and the U.S. military retaliated with strikes.
Ship traffic on the strait had increased over the past 72 hours, off both Iran and Oman, the multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Sunday, adding that “U.S.-assisted commercial transits continued uninterrupted despite the elevated threat environment.”
It said 89 such transits had been made, still below the historical average of 138 vessels a day.
Last week, Israel and the Lebanese government signed a framework agreement to end the latest fighting between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, which began two days after the Iran war began when Hezbollah fired at Israel. Israel responded with an invasion that has occupied large swaths of southern Lebanon, and it has said it will not withdraw until Hezbollah is disarmed.
But last week's deal did not include Iran or Hezbollah, which has criticized the deal and rejected calls to disarm.
On Sunday, Araghchi again said the U.S. must force Israel to halt attacks and withdraw. Israel occupies around 600 square kilometers (231 square miles) in southern Lebanon, which it says it needs as a security buffer.
But sporadic clashes have continued, and Hezbollah's leader said Saturday that the group would continue fighting until Israel withdraws from Lebanon.
Key Iranian negotiator and parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said Sunday that a meeting of a new “conflict control unit” formed among Iran, the United States and Lebanon should meet as soon as possible, Iran's state broadcaster reported.
The frequency of Israeli strikes in Lebanon has decreased significantly since the Iran-U.S. deal was signed, but two separate strikes hit southern Lebanon on Sunday morning — one in Taybeh town and the other in the Nabatiyeh area, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Overnight, Hezbollah militants killed an Israeli soldier in Deir Siryan village in southern Lebanon, according to Israel's military. Hezbollah did not comment.
“We are prepared to rapidly resume offensive operations in both Lebanon and Iran if required,” said Israel's military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir.
Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writer Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut contributed to this report.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, center, arrives to meet his Iraqi counterpart Fouad Hussein in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, June 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
An Israeli flag tops a destroyed building in southern Lebanon, as seen from northern Israel, Sunday, June 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi listens to his Iraqi counterpart Fouad Hussein during a news conference after a meeting at the foreign ministry in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, June 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa share a word after their meeting, at Al-Sakhir Palace near Zallaq, Bahrain Thursday, June 25, 2026. (Eric Lee/Pool Photo via AP)
