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Maria Shriver isn’t pleased with what she called a “petty” effort from House Republicans to rename the iconic John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., named for her uncle, after President Donald Trump.
Last week, Republican Rep. Bob Onder of Missouri introduced the “Make Entertainment Great Again Act,” which seeks to change the Kennedy Center’s name to “Donald J. Trump Center for Performing Arts.” In a statement announcing the bill, the Missouri Republican wrote, “I cannot think of a more ubiquitous symbol of American exceptionalism in the arts, entertainment, and popular culture at large than President Trump.”
Onder’s proposal came just one day after Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee passed an amendment that called for renaming the center’s opera house after first lady Melania Trump.
On Monday, Shriver — the former first lady of California and an Emmy Award-winning journalist — responded to the push to strip her uncle’s name from the center, calling it “insane” in a post on X.
“It makes my blood boil,” she wrote. “It’s so ridiculous, so petty, so small minded. Truly, what is this about? It’s always about something. ‘Let’s get rid of the Rose Garden. Let’s rename the Kennedy Center.’ What’s next?”
In February, Trump named himself head of the center’s board after firing its previous chairman and president, along with its bipartisan board of trustees. “At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social at the time.
Shriver isn’t the only Kennedy family member speaking out about the future of the center. Last week, Jack Schlossberg, grandson of the 35th president, addressed the matter in a lengthy post on Instagram.
“Trump is obsessed with being bigger than JFK , with minimizing the many heroes of our past, as if that elevates him,” Schlossberg wrote. “It doesn’t. But there’s hope — art lasts forever, and no one can change what JFK and our shared history stands for.”