Dec. 23 (UPI) — The addition of President Donald Trump’s name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the capital was done illegally, Rep. Joyce Beatty said in a lawsuit.
Beatty, D-Ohio, is the lone plaintiff in the lawsuit filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and names Trump as the lead defendant, along with dozens of others.
Beatty says Congress is the only body that can change the name of the Kennedy Center, which on Friday had the president’s name added to read: “Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.”
Beatty also is an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board of directors and said the board’s recent vote to add Trump’s name to the building requires an act of Congress to make it official, ABC News reported.
“This is a flagrant violation of the rule of law, and it flies in the face of our constitutional order,” Beatty argues.
“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,” she says.
“Unless and until this court intervenes, defendants will continue to defy Congress and thwart the law for improper ends.”
Trump chairs the board after recently ousting former Chairman David Rubenstein and other board members and replacing them with his preferred appointees.
Among them are Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., and many others.
“Because Congress named the center by statute, changing the Kennedy Center’s name requires an act of Congress,” Beatty says.
“But on Dec. 18 and 19, 2025, — in scenes more reminiscent of authoritarian regimes than the American republic — the sitting president and his handpicked loyalists renamed this storied center after President Trump.”
Beatty accuses Trump, et al., of a breach of trustees’ obligations and violations of the Administrative Procedures Act, Declaratory Judgement Act and her rights as a Kennedy Center trustee.
She also says the center’s board improperly prevented her from participating in its meeting when the name-change vote was held.
Beatty wants the court to declare the Kennedy Center’s name change to be illegal and affirm that its legal name is the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
She also wants the board’s vote to change the name nullified and affirm that her rights as an ex-officio board member were violated by prohibiting her from participating in the board meeting.
Beatty wants all references to Trump removed from the Kennedy Center, its signage and website and for the court to enjoin the board against holding a similar vote without allowing her to participate.
If such relief is not available, Beatty seeks a writ of mandamus ordering the center to remove all signs and references to Trump and to require her participation in all board meetings.