Kerry Kennedy, the sister of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., delivered a blistering rebuke of President Donald Trump after the Kennedy Center board voted to close the landmark performing arts venue for renovations.
Appearing on CNN’s “OutFront” with Erin Burnett, Kennedy — the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and niece of President John F. Kennedy — made clear that she does not accept the explanation being offered for what is happening to the institution that bears her uncle’s name.
“This is a tragedy,” Kennedy said.
“The American people love the Kennedy Center. They love the arts. They understand what’s going on. They see the corruption of this.”
Then she went directly at Trump.
Kennedy disputed the argument that the institution’s financial condition alone explains the shutdown, pointing instead to the ongoing battle over Trump’s efforts to have his name attached to the building.
“There is not a financial issue here,” Kennedy told Burnett.
She pointed to the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been discussed for renovating the complex and accused Trump of withholding support because of the continuing naming dispute.
And then came her sharpest line of the interview.
“This is like so many other things that Trump has touched,” Kennedy said. “It’s a bankruptcy because he adds his name to it.”
The White House and Kennedy Center leadership have presented a very different picture.
The Trump-appointed board has cited serious structural problems and financial instability in arguing that the building requires extensive renovation. The board approved a plan to close the main building for as long as two years as part of a renovation project expected to cost roughly $257 million.
The institution has faced genuine financial difficulties, including falling fundraising and ticket revenue amid leadership turmoil, litigation and artist boycotts.
But the closure comes in the middle of an extraordinary legal and political battle over Trump’s attempts to reshape the Kennedy Center.
A federal judge has repeatedly ruled against efforts to put Trump’s name on the building without congressional approval.
Trump has made the naming dispute part of the renovation fight himself.
After the latest court ruling, Trump said reconstruction could not begin until an appeals court rules on the board’s effort to add his name.
That is precisely the connection Kerry Kennedy seized upon.
Rather than describing the dispute as simply a fight over an aging building, she portrayed it as part of a much larger battle over the identity of a national institution created as a memorial to her uncle.
Kennedy then appealed directly to the president.
She pointed to the war with Iran, rising energy costs and Americans struggling with everyday expenses before urging Trump to turn his attention elsewhere.
“President Trump, please focus on what’s important,” she said.
“Leave the Kennedy Center alone.”
Kerry Kennedy is not the only member of the family objecting.
Her cousin Maria Shriver has also publicly criticized Trump’s handling of the Kennedy Center controversy, questioning why renovations to a public institution should become intertwined with the president’s desire to have his name attached to it.
Meanwhile, the legal fight is becoming even more consequential.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper has ordered the administration to provide advance notice before taking steps toward demolishing the Kennedy Center after Trump publicly raised the possibility of tearing down the existing structure.
The administration and Kennedy Center leadership maintain that extensive work is necessary to save the aging facility.
Critics argue that the renovation fight has become inseparable from Trump’s personal battle over the building’s name.
For Kerry Kennedy, however, the issue is more personal than an ordinary Washington political dispute.
The building is the nation’s living memorial to President John F. Kennedy.
And her message to the current president could hardly have been clearer:
Leave it alone.
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