Jack Schlossberg, John F. Kennedy’s grandson, is speaking out after the Kennedy Center board voted to add President Donald Trump’s name to the landmark.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Thursday, Dec. 18, that the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will now be known as the “Trump-Kennedy Center.”
In a post on X, Leavitt, 28, said the board “voted unanimously” to rename the building — which was dedicated in 1964 as a “living memorial” for JFK — though that claim is being challenged.
“Microphones were muted and the board meeting and vote NOT unanimous,” Schlossberg, 32, wrote in his own post on X.
Pointing to his newly announced congressional campaign, Schlossberg added, “I’m told Trump explicitly motivated to act by JACK FOR NEW YORK. Our campaign represents everything Trump can’t stand or defeat.”
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In another post on Instagram, he wrote, “SEND ME TO CONGRESS TO SMOKE THESE FOOLS — MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD LOUD AND CLEAR — I won’t back down or be drowned out.”
Schlossberg’s assertion that the decision wasn’t unanimous mirrors comments from Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center board. After the vote, Beatty posted on X that she and others who opposed the change were muted during the conference call and weren’t permitted to register dissent.
“For the record. This was not unanimous. I was muted on the call and not allowed to speak or voice my opposition to this move,” Beatty, 75, wrote. “Also for the record, this was not on the agenda. This was not consensus. This is censorship.”
In a video message, Beatty continued, “Clearly the Congress has a say in this. This center, the Kennedy Center, was created by the Congress. I think it’s important for us to know that this is just another attempt to evade the law and not let the people have a say.”
Trump, 79, has long talked about leaving his mark on the Kennedy Center. Soon after beginning his second term in January, he made himself chairman, removing members he characterized as “woke” and installing a new slate of allies.
In July, Republican congressman Bob Onder introduced the “Make Entertainment Great Again Act,” proposing to rename the venue the “Donald J. Trump Center for Performing Arts.” The proposal did not become law.
A month later, while previewing the Kennedy Center Honors, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “GREAT Nominees for the TRUMP/KENNEDY CENTER, whoops, I mean, KENNEDY CENTER, AWARDS.”
Schlossberg has criticized earlier efforts to rename the Kennedy Center in Trump’s honor. After Onder’s bill was introduced, he argued on social media that the change would violate federal law.
Citing Public Law 88-260, Schlossberg noted that the Kennedy Center operates as an interactive memorial for the late president. He shared a screenshot of the statute, which says that, as of Dec. 2, 1983, “no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.”
“Plain reading of the statute makes clear — YOU CAN’T DO THAT,” Schlossberg wrote in the caption of his post.
Kennedy, a committed supporter of the arts, often advocated for what he called “our contribution to the human spirit,” according to the Kennedy Center’s website. While plans for a national cultural center in Washington, D.C., predated his death, the institution was redesignated as a memorial in the months after his assassination in 1963.
“The Trump Administration stands for freedom of oppression, not expression. He uses his awesome powers to suppress free expression and instill fear. But this isn’t about the arts,” Schlossberg wrote on Instagram in July.
“Trump is obsessed with being bigger than JFK, with minimizing the many heroes of our past, as if that elevates him. It doesn’t,” he added. “But there’s hope — art lasts forever, and no one can change what JFK and our shared history stands for.”
