Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is weighing in on the controversy surrounding the Kennedy Center’s new name — weeks after the institution’s board added President Donald Trump’s name to the landmark.
RFK Jr., 71 — the nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy — was asked by CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes on Thursday, Jan. 8, whether he understood why some of his relatives were furious after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in December 2025 the venue would now be known as the Trump-Kennedy Center.
“Of course, I understand it, but I have bigger fish to fry,” he told CBS News. He then pointed to his priorities at HHS: “If we lose any children in this country to obesity, heart disease — 77% of our kids can’t qualify for the military. Saving one life is more important to me than the name on a building.”
RFK Jr. said he wasn’t involved in the decision to rename the institution. At the same time, he acknowledged he didn’t advise against it. When asked whether he personally objected to the new name, he emphasized that his focus is “making America healthy again.”
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The Kennedy Center was designated by Congress as a living memorial to JFK one year after his 1963 assassination. RFK Jr.’s remarks come as multiple members of the Kennedy family have publicly condemned the change — including Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s only grandson.
Schlossberg, 32 — who has previously argued the name change would be illegal — suggested political motives were at play when he wrote on X, “I’m told Trump explicitly motivated to act by JACK FOR NEW YORK. Our campaign represents everything Trump can’t stand or defeat.”
In another post shared to Instagram, he added: “SEND ME TO CONGRESS TO SMOKE THESE FOOLS — MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD LOUD AND CLEAR — I won’t back down or be drowned out.”
Kerry Kennedy, RFK Jr.’s sister, also reacted angrily, saying she planned to remove Trump’s name herself after it was added above her late uncle’s.
“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,” she wrote on X. “Are you in? Applying for my carpenter’s card today, so it’ll be a union job!!!”
Joe Kennedy III and Maria Shriver spoke out as well. Joe echoed Schlossberg’s challenge to the move’s legality, while Shriver argued the new name felt “downright weird.”
“It is beyond comprehension that this sitting president has sought to rename this great memorial dedicated to President Kennedy,” Shriver wrote on Instagram. “It is beyond wild that he would think adding his name in front of President Kennedy’s name is acceptable. It is not.”
Leavitt, 28, first announced the renaming on Dec. 18, 2025, in a post on X. She said “the highly respected Board of the Kennedy Center … voted unanimously to rename the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center, because of the unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building,” adding that the venue would reach “new levels of success and grandeur.”
But Leavitt’s claim of a unanimous vote has been disputed. Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty — who holds an automatic seat on the Kennedy Center board as a congressional leader — alleged she was prevented from participating during the call.
“Be clear: I was on that call, and as I tried to push my button to voice my concern, to ask questions and certainly not to vote in support of this, I was muted,” she said. “Each time I tried to speak, I was muted. Participants were not allowed to voice their concerns who were online, yet it was said at the end it was a unanimous vote.”
