Whitney Cummings Unleashes Shocking Trump-Epstein Roast at Kennedy Center Event
Whitney Cummings Unleashes Shocking Trump-Epstein Roast at Kennedy Center Event
Joseph KonigMon, June 29, 2026 at 8:19 PM UTC
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Whitney Cummings attends the 27th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor gala at The Kennedy Center on June 28 in Washington; President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on June 26.Credit: Getty(2) -
Comedian Whitney Cummings mocked President Donald Trump with a joke referencing his former friendship to Jeffrey Epstein at a Kennedy Center event honoring Bill Maher on Sunday, June 28
Trump has minimized his connection to Epstein over the years, emphasizing that they ran in the same circles but had a falling out
Maher received the Kennedy Center’s annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday at the performing arts venue that Trump unsuccessfully attempted to rename for himself
Comedian Whitney Cummings mocked President Donald Trump with a joke referencing his former friendship to Jeffrey Epstein at a Kennedy Center event honoring Bill Maher on Sunday, June 28.
Maher received the Kennedy Center’s annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the performing arts venue that Trump unsuccessfully attempted to rename for himself. A federal judge forced the center to take the president’s name off the building earlier this month.
"I actually heard Trump may come tonight but he couldn’t make it,” Cummings, 43, joked during the event, according to Deadline. “He got caught in sex traffic."
Cummings added that she was told not to use the joke during her remarks, according to The New York Times.
Several Trump administration officials attended the ceremony, including Medicaid and Medicare chief Dr. Mehmet Oz and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Lisa Oz and Dr. Mehmet Oz attend the 27th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor gala at The Kennedy Center on June 28 in Washington.Credit: Shannon Finney/WireImage
Trump has long denied any wrongdoing in connection with his friendship with Epstein, the financier and convicted sex offender who died in 2019. The president has minimized their relationship over the years and claimed they had a falling out decades ago, before Epstein was ever charged with a crime.
But their association has cast a shadow over his second presidency anyway, and his administration has been plagued by allegations — including from within the Republican Party — that it mishandled the release of Justice Department files related to Epstein.
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In May, Lutnick was also called before a House panel to offer closed-door testimony on his own encounters with Epstein years ago. Campaign finance filings later revealed Lutnick made a $5 million donation to a super PAC supporting House Republicans just weeks before his testimony.
Bill Maher welcomes the audience at the Mark Twain Prize gala at the Kennedy Center on June 28, 2026Credit: Shannon Finney/WireImage
The ceremony honoring Maher came after months of turmoil at the decades-old Washington institution where Trump serves as chairman of the board, including White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt erroneously claiming in March that Maher would not be receiving the award just days before the opposite was announced.
“I know we’ve had our differences, but I’m finally getting an award — can you just let me have my moment?” the longtime critic of the president joked with Trump impressionist Matt Friend on stage on Sunday, according to the Times.
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The annual honor and accompanying ceremony have featured comedians such as Conan O’Brien, Kevin Hart, Adam Sandler, Jon Stewart and Dave Chappelle in recent years. The inaugural award was given to Richard Pryor in 1998.
In addition to Cummings, speakers at Sunday’s ceremony included Jay Leno, Louis C.K., Woody Harrelson, Arianna Huffington, John Mellencamp and Stephen A. Smith, according to the Times.
Early in Trump’s second term, Maher went to the White House for a dinner set up by mutual friend Kid Rock.
The longtime liberal pundit remained critical of Trump afterward, but said on Real Time with Bill Maher in April 2025 that “a crazy person doesn't live in the White House. A person who plays a crazy person on TV a lot lives there.”
In February, Trump, 80, lashed out at Maher, 70, and talked about their dinner, writing on Truth Social that “sometimes in life you waste time!”
“[Maher] was extremely nervous, had ZERO confidence in himself and, to soothe his nerves, immediately, within seconds, asked for a ‘Vodka Tonic.’ He said to me, ‘I’ve never felt like this before, I’m actually scared.’ In one respect, it was somewhat endearing!” Trump wrote. “He is no different than [Jimmy] Kimmel, [Jimmy] Fallon, or [Stephen] Colbert but, I must admit, slightly more talented! Anyway, Bill Maher is a highly overrated LIGHTWEIGHT.”
On Sunday, Maher accepted the award at the Kennedy Center, as tarps still covered parts of the building’s exterior where Trump’s name was taken off in compliance with a recent court order.
National Guard troops patrol outside the Kennedy Center, the facade of which remains covered with a tarp, in Washington on June 28Credit: AFP/Getty
The president and a board of allies at the center attempted to rename it “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” But U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper ruled in May that Trump's name was added illegally and also blocked the president from shuttering the Washington, D.C., landmark for two years for renovations.
In a Truth Social post attacking the judge and his wife on May 30, Trump wrote, “The Kennedy Center is broken, unsafe, and busted, and has been for many years!”
“Judge Cooper also stated that the highly prestigious Board of the Center was not authorized to add on the name ‘TRUMP’ despite the fact that hundreds of millions of dollars of my time and money will be necessary for its successful reincarnation,” the president wrote. “So now, the Kennedy Center will collapse, both structurally and financially.”
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