❓WHAT HAPPENED: Representative Joyce Beatty (D-OH) has filed a motion in federal court to reverse the renaming of the Kennedy Center as the Trump-Kennedy Center.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Rep. Joyce Beatty, President Donald J. Trump, the Kennedy Center board, and various artists and organizations.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The motion was filed on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., federal court.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Donald Trump’s attempt to rename the Kennedy Center after himself is not just an act of ego. It is an attempt to subvert our Constitution and the rule of law.” – Rep. Beatty
🎯IMPACT: The name change has led to lawsuits and boycotts by left-wing artists; the Center is being closed for major renovations and rebuilding.
Ohio Representative Joyce Beatty (D) has submitted a motion in federal court seeking to restore the Trump Kennedy Center’s original name, “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.” The filing, lodged on Wednesday, asks the court to reverse the Trump administration and the current board’s decision to rebrand the facility.
Beatty’s lawyers contend that the board’s action broke federal law. “Can the Board of the Kennedy Center—in direct contradiction of the governing statutes—rename this sacred memorial to John F. Kennedy after President Donald J. Trump? The answer is, unequivocally, ‘no,’” the filing claims.
Roma Daravi, the Trump Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, said the organization believes the court will uphold the board’s choice and that ongoing renovations and improvements, which are also subject to a legal challenge, will continue on schedule.
The name change was first announced in December by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and was carried out without any vote in Congress. The center’s website, promotional materials, and exterior signage were updated immediately. Beatty filed the lawsuit soon afterward, citing the original congressional legislation that created the memorial.
Left-leaning arts world figures and institutions have been waging a guerrilla campaign against the Trump Kennedy Center under its current leadership, with artists including composer Philip Glass, musician Béla Fleck, and Broadway star Patti LuPone, who said the Center “should get blown up.”
Richard “Ric” Grennell, who served as the Center’s executive director until shortly after its closure for renovations was announced, hit back at LuPone, saying she was “giving aid and comfort to somebody who says, ‘Patti Lupone wants me to go blow up the Kennedy Center…’ This needs to stop—this radical left extremism that’s morphing into violence.”
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