JFK-Kel Jack Schlossberg: clear words about the plans of the Republicans

Jack Schlossberg (32), the only grandson of the murdered US President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), regularly comments on Instagram on political issues-mostly ironic, but occasionally also serious. On Wednesday, Caroline Kennedy’s son (67) reacted to plans by the US Republicans to name the opera house of the renowned John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington after First Lady Melania Trump (55).

made the studied lawyer clarified: the plans of the Republicans contradict applicable federal law. “A clear reading of the law makes it clear: they are not allowed to do that,” Schlossberg wrote about a screenshot of the relevant legal text. Since December 2, 1983, it has been forbidden to set up additional plaques or memorials in the public area of the Kennedy Center.

Schlossberg’s clear words are a reaction to a new project of the Republicans in the household committee of the House of Representatives. Part of this design is the renaming of the opera house in the Kennedy Center to “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House”. The proposal has already passed the committee, but is not yet a vote in the plenary.

The political dimension of the proposal is explosive: At the beginning of the year, US President Donald Trump (79) released the majority of the Kennedy Center board and filled it with his own supporters. Afterwards he had himself voted to be chairman- a step that caused massive criticism in the US art and cultural scene.

The cultural center in the US capital was launched in 1964 shortly after the murder of Kennedy from the US Congress as a “living monument” for the 35th president of the United States. It serves as a venue for music, theater and dance as well as a place of memory of JFK, who saw art and culture as essential for democracy. The center was opened in 1971.

Melania Trump, who holds the center as a first lady, is hardly present during Trump’s term of office. Her only prominent visit to the Kennedy Center took place at the premiere of “Les Misérables” – an evening that was accompanied by protests by some actors. When the presidential couple entered the hall at the time, it was both boozed and cheered.

It remains to be seen whether the proposal for renaming can legally exist. In any case, Schlossberg makes it clear that the Kennedy Center should remain a place that is dedicated to the legacy of his grandfather and not the political symbolism of the Trump era.