Kennedy relative hails Democrat as ‘national hero’ for standing up to Trump over Kennedy Center

John F. Kennedy’s niece praised a Democratic lawmaker as a “national hero” for challenging President Donald Trump’s proposed changes to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Kerry Kennedy, the daughter of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, took to social media to applaud Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty, who is spearheading a legal challenge to Trump’s effort to rename the performing arts center after himself.

“@RepBeatty is a national hero,” Kerry Kennedy wrote on X on Thursday. “She has fiercely and courageously stood up for the Kennedy Center, for the arts, for Uncle Jack’s memory, for this country’s history, and most importantly, for the law, time and time again.”

“We will not be bullied into silence or submission,” she added. “Thank you, Rep. Beatty. We are all so grateful for your leadership.”

Beatty, who filed her lawsuit challenging the Kennedy Center’s renaming in December 2025, secured a victory this week. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper barred the 80-year-old Republican president from etching his name into the Kennedy Center, a living memorial to John F. Kennedy.

“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” Cooper wrote. “The board resolution bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted.”