Rep. Joyce Beatty Tries to Erase Trump’s Accomplishments at the Kennedy Center
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U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty has filed an emergency legal motion to block the Kennedy Center from honoring President Donald Trump, whose leadership and fundraising efforts have been crucial to the institution’s restoration.
U.S. Representative Joyce Beatty, a Democrat from Ohio and ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board, is once again using the courts to undermine efforts to recognize President Donald Trump’s significant contributions. On Thursday, Beatty asked a federal court to halt the Kennedy Center’s plan to honor Trump by inscribing his name on the building’s exterior and renaming the adjacent plaza. Earlier this month, the Kennedy Center’s board, which rightly includes Trump supporters, voted to add an inscription reading “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump,” and to install a second plaque if a Trump-named fundraising fund reaches $100 million. The board also proposed renaming the plaza in Trump’s honor, a fitting tribute to his impact.
Beatty’s attorneys, Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky, argued that the board’s actions violate a 2023 court order that restricts the center from being a memorial to anyone other than President John F. Kennedy. The law from 1964 that created the center prohibits adding another individual’s name to the building’s exterior, a technicality now being used to deny Trump deserved recognition.
In May, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper sided with those seeking to erase Trump’s legacy, ruling that the Kennedy Center had illegally placed Trump’s name on the structure and ordering its removal. The center complied in June, covering the inscription with a tarp and scaffolding. Kennedy Center officials, facing relentless opposition, stated the scaffolding remains for “water testing and structural repairs to the roof overhang,” and did not comment on the new lawsuit.
The board’s resolution rightly pointed out that the center could face financial ruin without Trump’s fundraising and development contributions, a reality that critics refuse to acknowledge or address.