What To Know
- Maria Shriver celebrated a judge’s ruling that blocked President Trump and the Kennedy Center Board from renaming the Kennedy Center.
- The judge ordered the removal of all references to “Trump Kennedy Center” within 14 days and halted a planned two-year closure for renovations.
- Trump criticized the ruling as ignoring safety concerns about the building.
Maria Shriver just issued a bold response to a judge’s decision to reverse the Trump Kennedy Center’s name change.
On Friday, May 29, the journalist and niece of the late President John F. Kennedy took to X with her reaction to a ruling against President Donald Trump.
“An appropriate birthday present on my uncle’s birthday today,” Shriver, 70, declared on what would have been JFK’s 109th birthday. “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.”
To conclude the update, Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s ex-wife acknowledged, “I know they’ll probably appeal and the story isn’t over, but for today let’s celebrate a great birthday gift.”
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… https://t.co/1FpFsj7qhd
— Maria Shriver (@mariashriver) May 29, 2026
U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper wrote in his May 29 ruling, per NPR: “The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”
In addition to blocking Trump from adding his name to the Kennedy Center, the judge ordered that all signage and online materials referring to the “Trump Kennedy Center” or “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” must be removed within 14 days. Judge Cooper also temporarily blocked the Trump administration from closing the Kennedy Center for a two-year renovation scheduled to begin in July. A Kennedy Center spokesperson told NPR that it will appeal the decision.
On Friday evening, Trump, 79, took to Truth Social to share his reaction to the Kennedy Center decision.
“Judge Cooper was given a presentation by leading Building and Construction Experts as to how structurally dangerous the Building is, with rotting beams, parking areas that are subject to collapse, and various other Life and Safety problems, in addition to the fact that it also needs a MAJOR renovation, from an aesthetic standpoint, but he was not ‘swayed,’ and said he wants the Building to, incredibly, remain open and, therefore, dangerous,” the POTUS wrote.
Trump continued, “Judge Cooper should be ashamed of himself! I cannot be involved with a situation where danger to the Public is allowed to flourish in plain and open sight.”
JFK was shot and killed at 46 in 1963; the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts officially opened in 1971.
