JFK's Family Tear Into Trump Over Kennedy Center Shutdown [View all]

Source: Daily Beast

Updated Feb. 2 2026 3:50AM EST / Published Feb. 1 2026 10:13PM EST


John F. Kennedy’s outspoken niece and grandson have both laid into President Donald Trump over the latest in a string of controversies at the MAGAfied Kennedy Center. Maria Shriver, 70, mused about the real reason Trump decided to temporarily shutter the once-venerated cultural institution named after her uncle, which the new board recently attempted to rename the “Trump-Kennedy Center.”

The 79-year-old president announced in a Truth Social post on Sunday night that the “tired, broken, and dilapidated” performing arts center in Washington, D.C., will be closed for two years beginning July 4th for “Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding.”

“If we don’t close, the quality of Construction will not be nearly as good, and the time to completion, because of interruption from Audiences from the many Events using the Facility, will be much longer,” Trump claimed.

But Shriver wasn’t buying it. “Translation: It has been brought to my attention that due to the name change (but nobody’s telling me it’s due to the name change), but it’s been brought to my attention that entertainers are canceling left and right, and I have determined that since the name change no one wants to perform there any longer,” she wrote in an X post.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/jfks-niece-tears-into-trump-over-kennedy-center-shutdown/