It’s too early for the Trumps to know if they will go this year, Ms. Rutter said. The White House did not comment .

While presidents had missed the gala on rare occasions before — three times in the honors’ 40-year history — the Trumps’ absence in 2017 was the first time both the president and first lady decided to skip. Because the Kennedy Center Honors is such a “sought-after event,” Ms. Rutter added, she has not seen any change in ticket sales for the gala, which is the center’s key fund-raiser .

Several of this year’s nominees have criticized President Trump in the past — and criticism by honorees seemed to prompt his absence from the last two galas. Ms. Ronstadt has been outspoken about the president and his administration’s separation of immigrant children from their families at the border, and when Earth, Wind & Fire’s hit “September” was played at the Republican National Convention the night Mr. Trump clinched the nomination, the group posted on Twitter that the song’s use was unauthorized and “against our wishes.”

But while the 2017 honorees were vocal about reconsidering their participation in Kennedy Center Honors events because of the possibility that Mr. Trump would attend, some of this year’s artists think he may not make it to the gala this year, anyway. Mr. Thomas, for one, said in an interview that it’s “such an unlikely occurrence” that the president would show up that he hasn’t thought much about whether it would affect his own attendance.