Yet another Kennedy has entered the Trump Derangement Olympics.
Kerry Kennedy, daughter of former Sen. and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, declared Friday that she plans to personally remove President Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts the moment he leaves office — theatrics included.
“Three years and one month from today, I’m going to grab a pickax and pull those letters off that building,” Kennedy wrote on X and Instagram, apparently confusing civil disobedience with a Home Depot cosplay.
She added, “But I’m going to need help holding the ladder. Are you in? Apply for my carpenter’s card today, so it’ll be a union job!!!” Because of course it has to be unionized vandalism.
Trump’s name was added to the historic venue after the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees — reportedly restructured by Trump — voted unanimously to make the change. Center officials said the decision reflected Trump’s efforts to revive the institution and restore its relevance after years of ideological drift and declining public trust.
That explanation, unsurprisingly, did not sit well with the activist wing of the Kennedy family.
In a statement dripping with progressive boilerplate, Kerry Kennedy accused Trump and his administration of “repressing free expression” and “erasing history,” an interesting charge given that her solution involves literally erasing a name from a building.
“President Kennedy proudly stood for justice, peace, equality, dignity, diversity, and compassion,” she claimed. “President Trump stands in opposition to these values.”
Translation: JFK was a Democrat icon, Trump isn’t, and therefore his name is unacceptable — regardless of who actually runs the country or how the board voted.
Kerry Kennedy is not alone in her outrage. Other Democrats, including JFK niece Maria Shriver, have also attacked the renaming, arguing it was illegal. Former House historian Ray Smock echoed that claim, telling the Associated Press that the Kennedy Center was named by statute in 1964 and that only Congress has the authority to change it.
Of course, that didn’t stop Democrats from remaining oddly silent the countless times institutions, monuments, and traditions were renamed or removed to satisfy the cultural left.
One particularly awkward wrinkle: Kerry Kennedy’s own brother, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., currently serves as President Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services. RFK Jr. has so far declined to comment on the controversy — perhaps wisely choosing not to referee a family meltdown involving pickaxes and Instagram activism.
At the end of the day, Trump’s name is on the building, the board voted for it, and no amount of performative outrage is likely to change that anytime soon. But rest assured — when Trump leaves office, there will apparently be at least one Kennedy standing by with construction tools, a ladder, and a social media camera ready to roll.
