Maria Shriver celebrated the legal setback for Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center rebrand as “a great birthday gift” for her late uncle, former President John F. Kennedy.
The journalist, who is the daughter of Sargent Shriver and Eunice Kennedy, took to X after word broke on Friday that a federal judge ordered President Trump to remove his name from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
“An appropriate birthday present on my uncle’s birthday today,” Shriver, who was married to actor/former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger between 1986 and 2021, wrote. “A federal judge ruled that President Trump and the Kennedy Center Board acted unlawfully in renaming the Kennedy Center. The judge held that only Congress can change the Center’s name and blocked the planned two-year closure.”
She added: “I know they’ll probably appeal and the story isn’t over, but for today let’s celebrate a great birthday gift.”
This is not the first time that Shriver has spoken out against Trump’s control of the arts venue memorializing the former president. In fact, she was among several Kennedy family members who publicly condemned the president’s decision in February to close down the Kennedy Center for renovations.
“Translation: It has been brought to my attention that due to the name change (but nobody’s telling me it’s due to the name change), but it’s been brought to my attention that entertainers are canceling left and right, and I have determined that since the name change no one wants to perform there any longer,” Shriver wrote at the time, mocking the president’s announcement about the closure.
Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of President Kennedy, chimed in with, “Trump can take the Kennedy Center for himself. He can change the name, shut the doors, and demolish the building. He can try to kill JFK. But JFK is kept alive by us now rising up to remove Donald Trump, bring him to justice, and restore the freedoms generations fought for.”
This is just the latest roadblock for the embattled performance venue, which faced a mass exodus of artists after the board added Trump’s name to the building in December. This same board, handpicked and appointed by Trump, approved his plan to close the center for extensive renovations that would take up to two years.
Through his Friday ruling, Judge Christopher Cooper also temporarily barred the Washington cultural institution from shutting down the for renovations.
The ruling stemmed from a March lawsuit filed against Trump by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio member of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, who called out the president for his “unlawful renaming” of the building and for his decision to rebuild without consulting the appropriate regulatory entities.
Cooper sided with Rep. Beatty, noting in his order on Friday, “The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so … Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”
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