❓WHAT HAPPENED: A Democratic congresswoman filed a legal complaint against President Trump over a Kennedy Center board meeting exclusion.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Congresswoman Joyce Beatty and President Donald Trump.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The incident occurred ahead of a board meeting in 2025.
💬KEY QUOTE: “She was able to locate the notice in the spam folder of her personal email address.” – Aide update
🎯IMPACT: Initial reports suggested intentional exclusion, but the email was found in a spam folder.
Democratic Congresswoman Joyce Beatty filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump, claiming she was excluded from an upcoming Kennedy Center board meeting. The complaint was based on her not receiving an invitation, which was later discovered in her spam folder.
“The Board meeting at which the trustees purported to approve the Kennedy Center’s name change was a thinly-veiled sham. The meeting was held at the home of one of Defendant Trump’s supporters, whom he had installed to the Board. No notice was provided that a name change was being considered,” the lawsuit alleged.
But an aide’s quiet update on the situation has now stated, “On March 6, 2026, after learning that Defendant’s counsel represented to the Court that the Center sent the notice to Congresswoman Beatty’s personal email address, I asked Congresswoman Beatty to search her personal email. She was able to locate the notice in the spam folder of her personal email address.”
In today's edition of Washington is Veep: A Democratic congresswoman made a legal complaint against President Donald Trump for, in part, excluding her from an upcoming Kennedy Center board meeting. The invitation, it turned out, was in her spam folder. Aide filed an update today: pic.twitter.com/iJ0WnE4yrT
— Betsy Klein (@betsy_klein) March 12, 2026
Initially, major news outlets parroted that Beatty was deliberately left out of the email chain, aligning with her lawsuit’s claims.
Beatty, as an ex-officio member of the Trump Kennedy Center board, has no voting rights on the matter, regardless.
Join Pulse+ to comment below, and receive exclusive e-mail analyses.