Democratic U.S. Representative Joyce Beatty has filed a lawsuit seeking to remove President Donald Trump's name from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Last week, the board of the Kennedy Center—which Trump filled with allies—voted to rename the performing arts center the Trump-Kennedy Center.
Beatty, who is among several Democratic lawmakers designated as members of the board by U.S. law, claims in her lawsuit that the renaming was illegal since changing the name requires an act of Congress. She mentioned in the lawsuit that she had called into the meeting about the name change but was muted when she attempted to express her opposition.
Beatty argues that Congress intended for the center to be a living memorial to former President Kennedy.
[I]n scenes more reminiscent of authoritarian regimes than the American republic—the sitting President and his handpicked loyalists renamed this storied center after President Trump, the lawsuit states.
In a statement provided to the BBC, the White House indicated that Trump had stepped up and saved the Kennedy Center by strengthening its finances, modernizing the building, and terminating divisive woke programming.
As a result, the board of the Kennedy Center voted unanimously to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Center—marking a historic move that symbolizes a new era of success for one of America's most iconic cultural institutions.
On Friday, the president's name was added to the exterior of the building, and the center's website logo now reads The Trump Kennedy Center. This name change has faced significant backlash, especially in Washington, D.C., where the center has been a landmark since its establishment.
Construction on the performing arts center began in the 1950s, and it was named after Kennedy after his assassination in 1963. Shortly after Trump took office, he replaced the center's board members with loyalists who voted to elevate him as the board’s chair. The current board consists of 34 members appointed by Trump and 23 designated by law.
Trump also secured about $257 million in funding for major renovations, asserting that the venue was in a poor condition. Several members of the Kennedy family criticized the name change, with Joe Kennedy III stating that the Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president, emphasizing that it cannot be renamed akin to the Lincoln Memorial.
