Trump to award National Medal of Arts to actor Jon Voight

[highplainsdem]

Last edited Sun Nov 17, 2019, 11:39 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/

The White House announced on Sunday that President Trump will award actor Jon Voight the National Medal of Arts later this week.

Voight, one of Trump's most vocal Hollywood supporters, will be honored at a White House ceremony on Thursday for his "exceptional capacity as an actor to portray deeply complex characters," the White House said in a statement.

"Captivating audiences, he has given us insights into the richness of the human mind and heart," the statement said.

Voight, who won the Academy Award for best actor in 1978 for his role in "Coming Home," has called Trump the "greatest president since Abraham Lincoln."

-snip-

Read more: https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/470864-trump-to-award-national-medal-of-arts-to-actor-jon-voight

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Voight is getting this award for his role as a Trump toady.

And he isn't acting.



Editing to add that Trump did not follow the normal procedures for these awards:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/11/trumps-first-medal-arts-winners-include-jon-voight/601672/

Under Trump, the awards stopped: He passed up chances to hand out the medals in 2017 and 2018—the longest drought in the past 35 years. But now, I’m told, he’s poised to announce his first slate of winners later this month. It not only includes names that seem, in part, to be tailored to the president’s personal preferences—namely, the actor and MAGA enthusiast Jon Voight and all five U.S. military bands. But in choosing the winners, Trump appears to have ignored input from the committee that typically recommends artistic luminaries as candidates for the award.

-snip-

When members of the National Council on the Arts met late last month, however, they got a surprise: They learned that Trump had made his picks, and the winners would be formally announced in a matter of weeks. In choosing the recipients, though, Trump had bypassed recommendations the council had previously put forward, several council members told me. The members said that was a break from past practice and that presidents normally give the council’s recommendations more credence. When they looked at the names, some members objected to what they saw as partisan political considerations or a lack of diversity.

-snip-

Yet “there was alarm, and some surprise” at the meeting last month, one council member told me. “This was the first time that we had heard that there was going to be a medal award, and the decisions did not match our recommendations. That in itself was a new experience. We all immediately recognized that not only were recommendations not followed, but the kind of diversity we had striven for in the past in the various [artistic] disciplines had not been followed.”

The intent behind the president’s selections is unclear. But Voight, at least, is an effusive Trump loyalist who endorsed the president in 2016. In May, he tweeted a video message in which he said: “Let us stand with our president. Let us stand up for this truth: that President Trump is the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln.” Trump noticed the adulation. “Thank you so much, @JonVoight!” he tweeted in July.

[Roy Rolling]

1. Midnight Cowboy

Ratso Rizzo stole the show, Voight owes his career to exceptional supporting actors around him in supporting roles.

[no_hypocrisy]

21. My first thought as well.

[Grokenstein]

2. Turd Rewards Asskisser, Film at Eleven

I'm pretty confident Special Don-Don didn't write that statement.

[rownesheck]

3. Haven't seen many movies

with Jon voight, but I can tell you, he was in Anaconda and that movie was awful, as was he.

[Nitram]

4. Jon bought is a great actor. He is also a fascist.

See "Midnight Cowboy", "Runaway Train", "Deliverance" and "Coming Home if you don't believe me.

[emmaverybo]

5. Jon Voight is extremely talented and still a riveting performer. His is a tour de force performance

in Roy Donovan. Also Desert Bloom and Coming Home. Versatile. Maybe his toadyism helped him get this award. He is politically insane. Horrible father.

If all you have seen of Voight is Midnight Cowboy and Coming Home, his performances might not
seem major award worthy. His lifetime acting virtuosity, however, is deserving of recognition.

[highplainsdem]

8. See the edited OP. Trump didn't follow the usual procedures for choosing the recipients.

[emmaverybo]

13. I find it entirely believable that Trump is rewarding him for being one of the few Hollywood

notables to be a Trumptard. In fact, is there another? In being that crazy, he deserves perhaps to be seen as undeserving. I just can’t help expressing my admiration for his acting gifts, despite how he came by this award. He deserves for it to be questioned, but not on basis of talent. Not that you did.

[BigmanPigman]

6. Did George Costanza buy his LeBaron?

[DavidDvorkin]

7. He deserves this

It would be nice if he were a good guy in real life instead of a rightwing nutter, but his remarkable acting is undeniable.

[highplainsdem]

9. See the edited OP. Voight wasn't chosen in the usual way recipients of this award are chosen.

[intrepidity]

10. He used to be a decent guy

He appeared to be a good father, when the kids were young. But somewhere, somehow, he went off the rails badly.

[DavidDvorkin]

19. I wonder what happened.

[intrepidity]

23. I suspect he dove deeply into a character study

and never rightly emerged. He was an intense actor, in terms of prep. I speak from personal knowledge BTW.

[rpannier]

25. He could be one of those disillusioned types

I knew a few people from college in the early 80's who were pretty attached to the 'universal brotherhood of Communism'. Then they discovered what a twit Khrushchev and Brezhnev were and jumped the fence that connects the very, very, very far left, with the very, very far right.

It wasn't a huge jump for them since they just jumped from one extremist authoritarian ideology to another

[czarjak]

11. Deliverance?

[SCVDem]

37. Cue the banjo!

[keithbvadu2]

12. Next must be pedophile Ted Nugent.

Next must be pedophile Ted Nugent.

Qualified as a sycophant.

[usaf-vet]

15. Nothing new to see here. Trump using the same old playbook, reward those who publicly kiss his a$$.

Voight's important role now is to suck up to Trump.

[MurrayDelph]

16. Next up

Chachi.

[jb5150]

17. Voight hasn't done a good movie in decades ...

the last movie of his I saw, he got upstaged by a CGI snake.

[rpannier]

26. What about Baby Geniuses and An American Carol?

Okay... They were terrible... Not fun terrible... cringe, walk out of theater, turn off TV terrible

On a serious note, Ali was a good movie, and Transformers was good for what it was

He made a pretty good Howard Cosell and his performance in Transformers was good

He is a good actor. Crappy in politics

[OnlinePoker]

18. One of the few roles I really like him in was in Conrack

This was the true story of author Pat Conroy (Prince of Tides, The Great Santini) and his role as a teacher in an all-black one room school in the south in the early 70's. Voight portrayed him very well and the story was quite inspirational.

[generalbetrayus]

20. How did Scott Baio and James Woods get left off the list?

[Midnight Writer]

28. He's counting on them to be Homeland Security Adviser and Secretary of Defense.

And Ted Nugent will be Secretary of Pussy Grabbing. Yeee-oww!

[truthisfreedom]

22. Yawn. Totally predictable.

Every single thing 45 does benefits himself. Always. Without fail.

[PSPS]

24. A good actor (Conrac, Deliverance, etc.) but, face it, this is just a way of rewarding his adoration

[Scurrilous]

27. They should get this guy to present it to him.

[William Weehours]

30. Poor Orly Taitz!

She must feel SO forgotten! Trump hasn't given her anything!

[olddad65]

31. There will come a time when anyone who received a medal from Trump

Will be too embarrassed to wear it.

[SunSeeker]

32. Conservatives hate Hollywood, except when they find some stupid actor who spouts GOP propaganda.

Then he's a hero. Pathetic.

[YOHABLO]

33. It befuddles me that such great actors such as Voight, can support such an idiot.

[athenasatanjesus]

34. Is the reward for producing Angelina Jolie? because that is the best thing he has done.

[Traildogbob]

35. Next up

James Woods and Tim Allen. Worst chance for award, Robert Dinero, Alex Baldwin. Of all these, including Voight, which are more deserving? Guessing he will insert Kid Rock into Rick and Roll Hall of Fame for lyricist and vocals.

[BlueIdaho]

36. Another award devalued by Fatso.

I wonder how much Voight had to pay for his little tin star.

[matt819]

38. Like everyone awarded anything during this regime

There should be an asterisk after their names.

And the first line of their obituaries should be that they were awarded this or that medal or this or that pardon by a man who is himself in the record books with an asterisk after his name.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

39. I disagree with his politics, but he is a fine actor.

...and the military bands are quality entertainment and generally free. We used to go watch the Marine band at the band shell on the Tidal Basin in DC.