Rep. Joyce Beatty seeks court order to stop Kennedy Center from adding Donald Trump's name

U.S. Representative Joyce Beatty, a Democrat from Ohio and ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board, asked a federal court on Thursday to halt the performing arts venue’s effort to add President Donald Trump’s name to the building’s exterior and rename the adjacent plaza. The Kennedy Center’s board, which includes Trump supporters, voted earlier this month to place an inscription reading “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump,” and to add a second plaque if a Trump-named fundraising fund reaches $100 million. The board also proposed renaming the plaza in Trump’s honor.

Beatty’s attorneys, Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky, argued that the board’s actions violate a 2023 court order that bars the center from becoming a memorial to anyone other than President John F. Kennedy. The law that created the center in 1964 explicitly prohibits adding another individual’s name to the building’s exterior.

In May, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the Kennedy Center had illegally placed Trump’s name on the structure and ordered its removal. The center complied in June, covering the former inscription with a tarp and scaffolding. Kennedy Center officials said 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 claimed the center would face financial ruin without Trump’s fundraising and development contributions, a claim the center has not publicly substantiated.