A board member at the Kennedy Center has asked a judge to issue an order preventing Donald Trump from naming the iconic D.C. arts venue after himself.
The 79-year-old president sparked outrage when he prefixed the name of the historic cultural hub with his own name, amid a slew of other changes. Now that rebrand is being challenged in the courts.
Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty filed a motion at D.C. District Court on Wednesday insisting that Congress intended for there to be no room for modification when it named the Kennedy Center after the slain President John F. Kennedy.
Trump, who took over as chairman after his return to the White House last January before loading the board with his own lackeys, greenlit the name change in December. Beatty, however, claims that only Congress has that power.
“Renaming the Kennedy Center for President Trump—without any authorization from Congress—undermines the Center’s raison d’être, and frustrates its purpose as the only memorial to President Kennedy in Washington, D.C.,” the motion said.
Her motion cites the 1964 law that named the center after the assassinated president, which designated it the “sole memorial” to him. Kennedy had helped push through plans for the center during his presidency, but the venue didn’t open until 1971, under President Richard Nixon.
“Congress was particularly sensitive that no other names appear on the Center’s exterior walls, other than the signage designating the institution as a memorial for President Kennedy,” continued the motion, according to KCRA.
Beatty is an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board, appointed by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2019. A federal judge ruled this month that, as such, Beatty could take part in board meetings, although the ruling did not include an order allowing her to vote on the closure.
The congresswoman’s motion comes as Trump plans to close the center for two years for renovations. Its doors are expected to close in July.
Beatty has also asked the court to block the closure, Deadline reports, with her legal team arguing the two acts—the name and the closure—fly in the face of the president’s responsibility to take care of it.
“There is no clearer or more significant breach of fiduciary duty than the Board flouting the central purpose of the institution it is charged with protecting and which Congress enshrined into law: to maintain the Center as a memorial to John F. Kennedy—and to no one else,” her motion added.
It added, “The purpose of closure without that kind of preparation can only be an unlawful demolition-first-ask-questions-later approach that President Trump disastrously adopted with the East Wing of the White House—destroying protected buildings before anyone can stop him.”
A separate effort to prevent the center from closing has been launched by a coalition of eight leading architecture and historic preservation organizations. The group sued Trump in federal court on Monday.
It demands that “any further work” is paused, and that Trump then obtain congressional approval before progressing further.
The group of eight consists of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the American Institute of Architects, the DC Preservation League, and the American Society of Landscape Architects. Together, they are asking for a preliminary injunction to bar and demolition until all requirements are met.
Trump announced earlier this month that he was sacking Kennedy Center boss Richard Grenell, saying he would be replaced with Matt Floca, CNN reports.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Kennedy Center for comment.
