Trump To Bestow His 1st National Medal of Arts to Hollywood Legend Jon Voight
The White House announced the first National Medal of the Arts recipients to be chosen by the Trump administration on Sunday, including Academy Award-winning actor Jon Voight.
Voight will be honored “for his exceptional capacity as an actor to portray deeply complex characters. Captivating audiences, he has given us insights into the richness of the human mind and heart,” according to a White House news release.
Bluegrass/country music icon Alison Krauss, WETA President and CEO Sharon Percy Rockefeller and the Musicians of the U.S. Military were the other three recipients of the award.
All four will be honored at the White House on Thursday.
Voight won the Oscar for Best Actor in 1978 for his performance in “Coming Home” and starred with Dustin Hoffman in “Midnight Cowboy,” which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1970. He is also known for his performances in “Anaconda” (1997) and “Deliverance” (1972), according to IMDb.
The 80-year-old actor currently appears in the Showtime series “Ray Donovan.”
The National Medal of the Arts awards usually are given out by the president annually, but Trump had yet to do so. According to the National Endowment for the Arts, the last were presented by then-President Barack Obama on Sept. 22, 2016.
Voight has been known as one of the president’s most vocal supporters in the entertainment world.
The Hollywood legend endorsed Trump during the Republican primaries in March 2016, saying, “He’s an answer to our problems. We need to get behind him.”
His stance has only grown stronger since then.
In May, Voight called Trump “the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln” in a two-part video posted on Twitter.
To my fellow Americans. Part 1. pic.twitter.com/srw4zXCRKJ
— Jon Voight (@jonvoight) May 25, 2019
“I know that you’ll agree with me when I say that our president has our utmost respect and our love,” he said in Part 1. “This job is not easy for he’s battling the left and their absurd words of destruction. … Our nation has been built on the solid ground from our forefathers and there is a moral code of duty that has been passed on from President Lincoln.”
To my fellow Americans. Part 2. pic.twitter.com/uhqpbzwHhS
— Jon Voight (@jonvoight) May 25, 2019
“Don’t be fooled by the political left because we are the people of this nation that is witnessing triumph,” Voight said in the second part of his message. “So let us stand with our president, let us stand for this truth that President Trump is the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln. God bless America. And may God continue to guide this nation.”
In August, he called Trump “the greatest president of this century” in a Twitter video he captioned “Jon Voight’s message of peace and love.”
Jon Voight’s message of peace and love. pic.twitter.com/XHQTjtqsBx
— Jon Voight (@jonvoight) August 18, 2019
“This is not peace,” Voight said at the beginning of the video. “This is not love. This is hate among the radical left. No amount of book smart will show the given policy of what truth stands for. Truth is a powerful emotion. Love … is what we should be voting for.”
“Let us pray for this country that President Trump will take on four more years of his strength, devotion, knowledge of truths,” he concluded. “And all that doubt and have extreme anger toward President Trump, may they be shown differently, that President Trump is the greatest president of this century.”
In September, Voight expressed his outrage at the efforts to impeach Trump.
This is war pic.twitter.com/NbHIzbyr4O
— Jon Voight (@jonvoight) September 27, 2019
“War. This is war against truths. This is a war against the highest noble man who has defended our country, and made us safe and great again,” Voight said. “Let me stand with our president. Let us all stand with our President Trump in a time of such evil words trying for impeachment. This is a crime that the left are trying to force. This is a disgrace by such ignorant followers that have no truth of what truly has been brought back to our country.”
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