US President Donald Trump’s name was affixed to the front of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington on Friday morning, irking some people, especially the Kennedy family. Kerry Kennedy, daughter of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, said she would “grab a pickax” to remove President Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center after letters spelling Trump’s name were added.
“Three years and one month from today, I’m going to grab a pickax and pull those letters off that building, but I’m going to need help holding the ladder,” Kerry Kennedy posted on the social platform X. “Are you in? Applying for my carpenter’s card today, so it’ll be a union job!!!” The Kennedy Center board voted to include Trump’s name on the building on Thursday, and the exterior now reads “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” Kerry Kennedy criticised the name change as it related to her uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, saying he “proudly stood for justice, peace, equality, dignity, diversity, and compassion for those who suffer.” “President Trump stands in opposition to these values, and his name should not be placed alongside President Kennedy’s,” she wrote in a post on X. Other Kennedy family members also opposed the renaming. Maria Shriver, former President Kennedy’s niece and former first lady of California, described the change as “not dignified” and “not funny.” “It is beyond wild that he would think adding his name in front of President Kennedy’s name is acceptable,” Shriver wrote on X. “It is not. Next thing perhaps he will want to rename JFK Airport, rename the Lincoln Memorial, the Trump Lincoln Memorial. The Trump Jefferson Memorial. The Trump Smithsonian. The list goes on.” Robert F. Kennedy’s grandson, former Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.), questioned the legality of the new name, noting that the centre “is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law.” “It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says,” he wrote on X. The centre’s interim President Richard Grenell rejected doubts over the legality of the name change, arguing on X that the board’s vote “doesn’t impact the Memorial to Kennedy set up by Congress.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Roma Daravi, the vice president of public relations at the Kennedy Center, confirmed the name change. Trump, who serves as the centre’s board chair and handpicked its members earlier this year, praised the vote, calling the board “the most distinguished people in the country” and telling reporters the centre was “in such bad shape, physically, financially, and in every other way, and now it’s very solid, very strong.” The President had teased the centre’s new name while emceeing the Kennedy Center Honors earlier this month. “The Trump Kennedy Center,” he said to the audience before adding with a grin, “Oops.” Go to Source
