People are cheering after Kennedy family members Maria Shriver and Kerry Kennedy reacted to a judge's ruling that President Donald Trump must remove his name from the Kennedy Center.
In December, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the Kennedy Center Board had voted to rename the performing arts center the "Trump-Kennedy Center."
Congress officially named the center after former President John F. Kennedy in 1964, following his assassination. According to Donald A. Ritchie, who served as Senate historian from 2009 to 2015, because Congress bestowed the name, only Congress has the authority to legally change it.
Ritchie noted that while Trump and others can casually refer to it by another name, such usage would carry no legal weight. Even so, the board chose not to wait for any formal resolution. It promptly updated its website branding to reflect the new title.
But then on May 29—on what would have been the late Kennedy's 109th birthday—U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper reaffirmed that Congress alone can alter the name of the arts center. He ordered that Trump’s name be stripped from the institution’s official title, removed from the building’s façade, and “any other physical or digital signage, and official materials.”
The news thrilled journalist and former First Lady of California Maria Shriver—the daughter of Sargent Shriver and Eunice Kennedy Shriver—who noted the significance of the date Cooper issued his ruling, writing on X:
"An appropriate birthday present on my uncle's birthday today. 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. I know they'll probably appeal and the story isn't over, but for today let’s celebrate a great birthday gift."
You can see her post below.
Shriver's cousin, writer and human rights activist Kerry Kennedy, who is the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel and the sister of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., also reacted.
She wrote the following message in which she also thanked Ohio Representative Joyce Beatty, a Democrat, for having filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's plans for the center:
"Perhaps I won’t need that pickaxe after all. Thank you, Congresswoman @RepBeatty, for your courage and dedication to ensuring proper procedures are followed. What a great way to celebrate you on your birthday, Uncle Jack!"
You can see her post below.
People are similarly thrilled.
Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, said following Cooper's ruling that the institution is “confident that on appeal the court will uphold the Board’s will to recognize President Trump’s historic contributions to our nation’s cultural center.”
Unsurprisingly, Trump threw a tantrum, saying in a post on Truth Social that Cooper should be “ashamed of himself.”
Trump claimed "Radical Left Democrats care more about opposing your favorite president, ME, than saving a dying Performing Arts Center."
The president, who had previously gloated about having taken over the institution by installing some of his own followers on the Kennedy Center board, said his administration will "be working with Congress to transfer this failing institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it."
@cashingpropss/X
