Jack Schlossberg Speaks Out After Kennedy Center Board Votes to Rename His Grandfather's Memorial After Donald Trump

Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of John F. Kennedy, has spoken out after the Kennedy Center board voted to add President Donald Trump's name to the historic site.

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 her post on X, Leavitt, 28, claimed that the board "voted unanimously" to rename the building — which was dedicated in 1964 as a "living memorial" for JFK — a claim some are disputing.

In another post shared to 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 claim that the renaming did not have unanimous support aligns with comments made by Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty, who serves as an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center board. Following the vote, Beatty took to X with claims that she and other opponents of the vote were muted on the conference call where the vote took place and were not allowed to vote their differing opinions.

"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 her video message, she 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 spoken about his plans to put his mark on the Kennedy Center. Almost immediately after taking office for his second term in January, he made himself chairman, eliminating so-called "woke" members of the board and installing a new group of MAGA devotees.

Then, in July, Republican congressman Bob Onder introduced the “Make Entertainment Great Again Act," proposing to entirely rename the building to the "Donald J. Trump Center for Performing Arts," which was never made into law.

The following month, 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 previously spoken out against the renaming of the Kennedy Center to honor Trump. Following the introduction of Onder's bill, he took to social media to argue that renaming the Kennedy Center would violate federal law.

According to Public Law 88-260, the Kennedy Center operates as an interactive memorial for the late president. Schlossberg shared a screenshot of the statute, which declares 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, 32, wrote in the caption of his post.

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Kennedy, a devoted supporter of the arts, frequently advocated for what he called "our contribution to the human spirit," per the Kennedy Center website. Though plans to open a national cultural center in D.C. were already in the works before Kennedy's death, the establishment was redesignated as a JFK 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," Schlossberg added. "But there's hope — art lasts forever, and no one can change what JFK and our shared history stands for."