Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, is blasting a measure from House Republicans that would rename the Kennedy Center’s famed Opera House in honor of Melania Trump.
“A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces — but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers,” Schlossberg, quoting his grandfather, wrote in a Tuesday post on Instagram.
“JFK believed the arts made our country great and could be our most effective weapon in the fight for civil rights and against authoritarian governments around the world,” Schlossberg, a vocal critic of President Trump, said.
“The Trump administration stands for freedom of oppression, not expression,” he added.
“[Trump] uses his awesome powers to suppress free expression and instill fear,” the 32-year-old son of former U.S. ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg said.
Schlossberg’s social media post came after House Republicans on the Appropriations Committee approved an amendment to the interior, environment and related agencies annual spending bill on Tuesday that would rename the opera house in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.”
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) called the move an “excellent way to recognize [Melania Trump’s] support and commitment to promoting the arts.”
The Opera House renaming effort came after the president, accusing the Kennedy Center of being too “woke,” overhauled its board in February and named himself its chair.
But Schlossberg said the potential name change to the prominent institution’s Opera House was not “about the arts.”
“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.
“But there’s hope,” Schlossberg wrote to his nearly 700,000 followers, “art lasts forever, and no one can change what JFK and our shared history stands for.”