Jackie Kennedy’s 1964 Letter Comes Back to Haunt Trump

Jackie Kennedy once expressed fears that the Kennedy Center was “entering the realm of political patronage” in a letter that caused a stir following the cultural institution’s MAGA shift. In October 1964, a letter from the then-First Lady to the center’s president, Roger Stevens, detailed her concerns about naming the Washington, D.C. institution after her husband, John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated the year before. “When the decision was made to name this place after him last winter, I was in no position to make any decisions and a lot of people were pressuring me,” he wrote. “I don’t think he needs a memorial – his grave and Library do. The Center was a problem he inherited – and if he had started it he would have done it differently. All I care about now is saving him from controversy. He has the right to peace now. So you must understand my hesitation.”