The real reason Tom Cruise rejected Trump honor

Tom Cruise wanted no part of Donald Trump after he was offered the Kennedy Center’s Lifetime Achievement, blaming “scheduling conflicts,” but there may have been more to the story, Knewz.com can reveal. The Mission: Impossible megastar is said to be desperately trying to stay away from making a political stance.

According to reports, Cruise rejected the chance to be honored with the award in December, while other notable names including Sylvester Stallone and rock band KISS accepted. However, plenty on X speculated Cruise doesn’t want to muddle his career by appearing to side with the controversial president. “I don’t blame Cruise, honestly,” one person said. “Tom was in the middle of public perception for years and has finally dug himself out of it… avoid politics like the plague, it’s the way.” Another said, “I am so glad he refuses to have anything to do with Trump.” A third user reacted, “I don’t think Cruise is making a political statement for or against Trump. I think he’s just wisely staying out of the political arena altogether.” A fourth X user simply said, “Tom Cruise is many things, but a bigot ain’t one of them.”

Despite the movie star saying no thanks to Trump, the politician may be filling the spot with another big name: himself. The 79-year-old recently confessed a Kennedy Center Honor is on his personal bucket list, telling reporters, “Since 1978, the Kennedy Center Honors have been among the most prestigious awards in the performing arts. I wanted one, [but] I was never able to get one. … It’s true. I would have taken it if they had called me. I waited and waited and waited and said, the hell with it, I’ll become chairman, and I’ll give myself an honor. … Maybe next year we’ll honor Trump, okay?”

That was not the only bizarre statement Trump made during the press conference, as he also rambled about his knowledge of grass and struggled to piece together coherent sentences, sparking more theories that he’s suffering from dementia. After telling reporters his administration was going to “fix up a place called Washington, D.C.” — which, according to Trump, has fallen into despair but will soon be made “so beautiful again” — he boasted, “We’ll redo the grass with the finest grasses. I know a lot about grass. I own a lot of golf courses. … If you don’t have good grass, you aren’t in business very long.” He then added, with no context, “Lindsey Graham. Good poll numbers, Lindsey, congratulations.” The odd comments led one person on social media to theorize, “This is what a word salad looks like. Dementia Don is at it again.” Another complained, “What the hell is he talking about? He is insane.” Social media users aren’t the only ones accusing the most powerful man in the world of dementia; psychotherapist and author Dr. John Gartner is as well. Dr. Gartner claimed “there is no doubt” that Trump has dementia and explained his reasoning in an interview.

“When we’re diagnosing dementia, what we need to see is a deterioration of someone’s own baseline of functioning. What we see that a lot of people don’t appreciate is that when Donald Trump was younger in the 1980s, he was actually quite articulate. He spoke in polished paragraphs; now he has difficulty even finishing a sentence,” Dr. Gartner said. “His thoughts were logical and related: Now they’re tangential.”