Maria Shriver has blasted the intensifying MAGA makeover of the Kennedy Center, which threatens to wipe her uncle’s name from the country’s premier arts venue.
Last week, Republicans on a House panel voted to rename the center’s opera house after first lady Melania Trump. Now Missouri Rep. Bob Onder has proposed renaming the whole building after President Donald Trump.
Shriver, a longtime NBC News journalist who was first lady of California during her marriage to actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, doesn’t like the idea, to say the least.
“This is insane. It makes my blood boil. It’s so ridiculous, so petty, so small minded,” she wrote Monday on X.
“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?”
Shriver is the daughter of renowned disability advocate Eunice Kennedy, who died in 2009, and diplomat Sargent Shriver, who died in 2011. Her mother’s siblings John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy were the fathers of Caroline and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., respectively.
In January, Maria Shriver commended the “courage” of Caroline Kennedy after she slammed their cousin RFK Jr., calling him a “predator.”
Despite being from the Kennedy-Shriver political dynasty, Maria forged her own path, carving out a successful career in the media. After graduating from Georgetown, she rose through CBS and NBC, anchoring programs like CBS Morning News and reporting for Dateline NBC. She won a Peabody in 1998 and multiple Emmys as executive producer of The Alzheimer’s Project.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was opened in 1971. Its name pays homage to the president who was assassinated in 1963. JFK was also a key player in securing government and public funds for the center, according to the center’s website.
Onder’s bill would erase Kennedy’s name from the artistic hub. In a statement, he suggested that he thinks Trump is a more fitting choice.
“You would be hard-pressed to find a more significant cultural icon in the past 40 years than President Trump,” the congressman said.
“President Trump’s love and mastery of entertainment has stood the test of time and allowed him to capture Americans’ attention for decades.”
Dubbing the bill the Make Entertainment Great Again (MEGA) Act, Onder said Trump’s “golden touch has captivated and entertained audiences,” listing his TV appearances in shows such as The Apprentice, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and Saturday Night Live.
He also lauded Trump for nixing the center’s “woke programming.”
When the motion to rename the opera house for the first lady passed, Kennedy’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg, lashed out.
“Trump is obsessed with being bigger than JFK, with minimizing the many heroes of our past, as if that elevates him. It doesn’t,” he said in an Instagram post.
The move comes as part of a wider effort to reshape the center in Trump’s image.
In March, the president hijacked the institution by firing its board of trustees and naming himself chairman.
A board stocked with political allies now runs the show. Trump has branded past programming as “woke” and “terrible,” and vowed to give it a conservative reboot.
He also floated plans to hijack the hosting of the annual Kennedy Center Honors, labeling himself the “king of ratings.”
