Maria Shriver called it a great birthday gift for her late uncle.
Her uncle was John F. Kennedy, and Friday would have been his 109th birthday. A federal judge marked the day by ruling that Donald Trump broke the law when he bolted his own name onto the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and that only Congress can rename it.
Trump has stamped his name on buildings and projects all over Washington, and he made himself chairman of this one. A judge just ordered his name off the most famous stage in town, and the signage removed within fourteen days. Trump answered by quitting in a Truth Social tantrum, calling it a hopeless trip to “NEVER NEVER LAND.” An appeal may still come and this story isn’t over just yet. For today, he lost one.
I’ve emailed 7,614 stories over 484 straight nights, free and without ads. The algorithm can’t show them all to you. Add your email address at govbrief.today and I will.
#GovBriefToday #Resist
🟠120|🟡104|🟠112|🟡85|🟢48
Country singer Martina McBride becomes the fifth act to quit Trump's Freedom 250 concert series after being told the event was nonpartisan.
Today’s GovBrief News
Trump says he will lift the U.S. naval blockade of Iran and lays out deal terms that Iran calls false.
Source: CBS News
May 29, 2026
Kenyan court blocks Trump's plan to quarantine Ebola-exposed Americans in Kenya rather than bring them home for treatment, citing a threat to life.
Source: Ars Technica
May 29, 2026
Trump signs executive order directing the CDC to cut recommended childhood vaccines nearly in half, dropping shots for six diseases.
Source: The Guardian
May 29, 2026
Former Attorney General Bondi tells House investigators she delegated the Epstein files review to acting Attorney General Blanche, as survivors demand sworn testimony.
Source: NPR
May 29, 2026
Federal judge strikes down New Hampshire's proof-of-citizenship voter registration law as unconstitutional months before the midterms.
Source: The New Hampshire Bulletin
May 29, 2026
Louisiana legislature passes a congressional map cutting majority-Black districts from two to one, a month after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act.
Source: NOTUS
May 29, 2026
Colorado Governor Polis vetoes a union bargaining bill for the second straight year, again rejecting his own party's legislature.
Source: Colorado Newsline
May 29, 2026
Treasury Secretary Bessent dismisses war-driven gas costs as 'less than $200' per family as analysts peg the real hit far higher.
Source: Mediaite
May 29, 2026
U.S. general meets Cuban military officials at Guantanamo Bay as Trump squeezes the island with a fuel blockade.
Source: USA Today
May 29, 2026
U.S. military kills three in another eastern Pacific drug-boat attack as a Pentagon watchdog opens a review of the campaign's legal basis.
Source: The Hill
May 29, 2026
Federal judge freezes Trump's $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund a week after targeted individuals and groups sued, calling it a payout scheme for political allies.
Source: Courthouse News Service
May 29, 2026
New Jersey Governor Sherrill sends State Police to build a buffer zone outside Newark's Delaney Hall, and ICE agrees to pull back.
Source: The New Jersey Monitor
May 29, 2026
White House launches a space-themed website mocking immigrants as extraterrestrials that lists more than 700 locations where arrests were made of people born in the United States.
Source: Wired
May 29, 2026
Trump's physician declares the president in excellent health and fully fit to serve after his fourth Walter Reed exam in 13 months.
Source: The Associated Press
May 29, 2026
National Science Foundation tells disabled employees to retest existing accommodations in a new building before honoring them, the union says.
Source: Federal News Network
May 29, 2026
Two-thirds of the Freedom 250 lineup pulls out of Trump's 250th birthday concert series, with artists saying the nonpartisan billing was misleading.
Source: Axios
May 29, 2026
Federal judge bars Trump's name from the Kennedy Center and blocks its two-year closure, ruling only Congress can rename it.
Source: WUSA Washington
May 29, 2026