RFK Jr.'s Sister Kerry Kennedy Rips Trump Administration Over Petty Decision To Shut Down Kennedy Center

Kerry Kennedy, the sister of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., spoke out after members President Donald Trump had installed on the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced their decision to shut down the organization entirely following a judge's ruling that Trump's name can't be added to the building.

Last month, the Trump administration said in a new court filing that the Kennedy Center "will be required to be taken down" if Trump's name isn't allowed to be added along with his other desired renovations for the building.

The board of trustees voted to add Trump’s name to the building again, this time with a qualification: the proposed inscription would read, “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.”

The board said the wording would be used only if a renovation fundraising campaign reaches $100 million in donations. They signaled the Kennedy Center’s plaza would also be renamed in Trump’s honor. The organization previously said it will not attempt to put Trump’s name back on the building’s facade to give the courts time to consider the legal challenge then under review.

But now the board has voted to shut the venue down, citing financial reasons and the name dispute. The announcement came after, Christopher R. Cooper, a federal judge, denied the final attempt to change the organization's name. Cooper said Trump and his allies had played “linguistic gymnastics” and been “play[ing] word games” in clear defiance of “common sense.”

In a post on X, the White House said:

"The Kennedy Center Board voted nearly unanimously to close the building immediately for safety reasons and prepare for reconstruction. Renovation cannot begin until the D.C. Circuit rules on the Board’s approved name. In the meantime, $17M raised by President Trump has been placed in the Kennedy Center account to keep it afloat."

You can see the post below.

Asked for her reaction to the closure, Kennedy said:

“This is a tragedy. The American people love the Kennedy Center. They love the arts. They understand what’s going on. They see the corruption of this."

"There is not a financial issue here. President Trump has said they have $250 million ready to hand over tomorrow. He’s just withholding it because he wants his name on the building.”

"This is like so many other things that Trump has touched. It’s a bankruptcy because he adds his name to it.”

You can hear what she said in the video below.

Many concurred with her remarks.

Cooper’s ruling also questioned the argument that the Kennedy Center’s financial future depends on Trump’s fundraising efforts. The judge pointed to the roughly $257 million that Congress has already allocated for renovations and challenged the notion that the center’s financial troubles could be resolved by putting Trump’s name on the building.

Instead, Cooper noted that the center’s financial downturn coincided with the decision to add Trump’s name, citing canceled performances, the Washington National Opera’s departure after five decades at the venue, and steep declines in both ticket sales and viewership for the Kennedy Center Honors broadcast.

The judge also found that the Kennedy Center had offered no evidence showing that present or future donors would condition their contributions on Trump’s name remaining on the building.

Despite that finding, Trump continued to argue that the renovation hinges on the naming dispute.

In a Truth Social post, he said the $257 million reconstruction project could not move forward unless the D.C. Circuit ruled in favor of the board’s naming plan. He added that if the ruling went against him and was not overturned by the Supreme Court, “the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place.”