Maria Shriver is celebrating her family’s victory after a judge ruled that President Donald Trump’s name be removed from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
“An appropriate birthday present on my uncle’s birthday today,” Shriver, 70, wrote via Threads on Friday, May 29, referring to President John F. Kennedy, who would have been 109 years old today.
She explained, “A federal judge ruled that President Trump and the Kennedy Center Board acted unlawfully in renaming the Kennedy Center after him. The judge held that only Congress can change the Center’s name and blocked the planned two-year closure for now.”
Shriver — whose mother, Eunice Kennedy, is part of the storied Kennedy family and one of JFK’s siblings — added, ”I know they’ll probably appeal and the story isn’t over, but for today, let’s celebrate a great birthday gift.”
Shriver’s celebratory post comes shortly after news broke that a federal judge barred Trump, 79, from adding his name to the Kennedy Center after he put his moniker on the iconic building in December 2025. (The building currently reads: The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.)
Judge Christopher Cooper pointed out that only Congress has the authority to make a change like that. He wrote in a 94-page order that the law Congress passed to create the performing arts center in Washington, D.C., was “crystal clear” that the building be named after President Kennedy.
“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” Cooper wrote.
The Trump Kennedy Center vice president of public relations, Roma Daravi, told Us Weekly in a statement on Friday that the center is “confident that on appeal the court will uphold the Board’s will to recognize President Trump’s historic contributions to our nation’s cultural center.”
The judge, for his part, also temporarily blocked the Kennedy Center from being closed for two years due to renovations that Trump had planned.
Cooper explained that his ruling was due to the fact that the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees did not balance its obligations to the center when it agreed to close for renovations. “None of the board members had sufficient information in advance of the March 16 meeting to make a well-considered decision to close the center,” the judge wrote, according to the New York Times.
Should the board work toward “independently balancing its multiple obligations to the Center in a prudent fashion,” the judge said they might be able to close for renovations.
In response to the judge’s ruling, Davari told Us on Friday, “We will review the decision carefully though the reality remains — the Center requires an urgent and significant restoration – a truth that even the plaintiff acknowledges.”
The VP of public relations for the Trump Kennedy Center added, “With $257 million secured by President Trump and approved by Congress, the resources are in place and we remain committed to pursuing every lawful avenue to ensure the Trump Kennedy Center is restored as a national cultural landmark for all Americans to enjoy.”
Prior to today’s ruling, Trump has received backlash since renaming the establishment in December 2025.
“Adding your name to a memorial already named in honor of a great man doesn’t make you a great man. Quite the contrary,” Shriver wrote via Instagram at the time. “Putting your name on top of someone else’s doesn’t mean that people will speak of you in the same breath as the other man. Putting your name above another man’s name on his existing memorial… What is that about? Truly? What’s that about?”
Trump came under further scrutiny when it was announced he’d be closing the center on July 4 to add an entertainment space.
“The Trump Kennedy Center will close on July 4th, 2026, in honor of the 250th Anniversary of our Country, whereupon we will simultaneously begin Construction of the new and spectacular Entertainment Complex,” the president wrote via Truth Social in February. “This important decision, based on input from many Highly Respected Experts, will take a tired, broken and dilapidated Center, one that has been in bad condition, both financially and structurally for many years, and turn it into a World Class Bastion of Arts, Music and Entertainment, far better than it has ever been before.”
Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s only grandson and a candidate running for Congress, was outraged by Trump’s actions as well.
“Trump can take the Kennedy Center for himself. He can change the name, shut the doors, and demolish the building,” Schlossberg, 33, wrote via X. “He can try to kill JFK. But JFK is kept alive by us now rising up to remove Donald Trump, bring him to justice, and restore the freedoms generations fought for.”
Us Weekly has reached out to the White House for comment.
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