This didn’t take very long at all. Donald Trump is litigious as hell and he also inspires many lawsuits against himself. In this case, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) a member of the Kennedy Center Board who was muted (and therefore not allowed to vote “no” when the issue of renaming the Kennedy Center came up) has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Trump didn’t have the legal authority to add his name to the Kennedy Center and should therefore remove it.
The White House claimed that the board decided to honor Trump, but those who were involved with the Kennedy Center suggest that Trump has been maneuvering for the name change since he returned to the White House.
Plaintiff actually sought to prevent the name change but was prevented from even voicing her opposition at the Board meeting. Any further efforts to convince Defendants to follow the law would be futile. Unless and until this Court intervenes, the effort to corrupt the Kennedy Center into a vanity project for Defendant Trump will continue to harm the institution. Congress has determined that the Kennedy Center’s purpose is to serve as a living memorial to President Kennedy.
And therein lies a distinction that Trump can’t make. As his niece, Mary, argues: Trump only did the name change because he wants love and he believes that having his name on the same building as John F. Kennedy, who was beloved, that he will somehow gain the same kind of status. That’s absurd. All Trump is accomplishing in truth is defiling the Kennedy Center by wrongly and vainly attaching his name to it.
Congress also determined that it is critical that this memorial not be diluted by association with any other individuals. But every day that goes by, Defendants are thwarting the Kennedy Center’s defining purpose. In addition, the purported name change will impose financial and operational harms on this already struggling institution by alienating ticket holders, donors, and artists. For example, immediately following the purported name change, musician Kristy Lee announced that she was canceling her January 2026 performance. On information and belief, ticket holders have canceled their tickets in protest of Defendants’ unlawful actions and demanded refunds. There is every reason to expect this trend will continue, with associated financial and reputational harms.
Beatty is seeking to have any mentions or renaming of the center for Donald Trump removed from the building and requesting that she be allowed to fully participate in all future board meetings.
Trump has stuffed the Kennedy Center board with allies, including Fox News’s Laura Ingraham and Maria Bartiromo. Members of the Trump administration, like White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and JD Vance’s wife, along with MAGA associates like Ballet Beautiful owner Mary Helen Bowers.
What Donald Trump did was illegal. The president does not have the power to rename the Kennedy Center. Only Congress can authorize any name changes.
The odds are high that Beatty will win her lawsuit, but as with everything involving this administration, winning is only half the battle. The next step will be to get Trump’s name off the building.
We are living in Back To The Future, where Biff Tannen puts his name on everything. The Biff character was modeled on Donald Trump, so we have life imitating art imitating life. Only in America, in the second and third decades of the 21st century.
The Biff Tannen presidency.
Rings true.
Just watch the ‘Back To The Future’ movies.
Good to hear.
What’s the chances this federal lawsuit will prevail, and get to ruffle the thin-skinned you know who, is?
Which contractor installed the Trump name on the building? Sue them too, and get them to remove it.