Democratic US representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio sued Donald Trump on Monday to seek the removal of his name from the John F Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington DC.
The lawsuit from Beatty, an ex-officio trustee on the board, argued that the vote to rename the Kennedy Center is a “flagrant violation” of law as congressional approval is required for such an action.
“Congress intended the Center to be a living memorial to President Kennedy – and a crown jewel of the arts for all Americans, irrespective of party. Unless and until this Court intervenes, Defendants will continue to defy Congress and thwart the law for improper ends,” read the complaint.
Beatty also alleges that she was prevented from speaking during the board’s vote on the renaming. On a video call about the matter, Beatty said she was muted and was not able to express her disapproval about the name change.
Beatty is being represented by the Washington Litigation Group and Democracy Defenders Action.
In response to a request for comment on Beatty’s suit, White House spokesperson Liz Huston told ABC News in a statement that Trump had “stepped up and saved the old Kennedy Center”.
The Trump administration announced last week that the Kennedy Center board “voted unanimously” to rename the center to the “Trump-Kennedy Center”, with workers already changing the name on the building’s exterior. The Kennedy Center later confirmed the vote to change the name in an email to the Washington Post.
Other critics beside Beatty have also cast doubt if such a name change is even legal. Joe Kennedy III, a former congressman for Massachusetts and the grandnephew of John F Kennedy, questioned the name change’s legality in a post to X.
“The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law. It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says,” he said on X.
The name change is the latest effort by Trump to dramatically reshape the storied arts organization as a part of a so-called “take-over”, said the president in February. Since the beginning of his presidency, Trump has installed himself as chair of the center, replaced the previously bipartisan board and shifted the center’s programming focus towards patriotism.
