Ohio
Latest Coverage
See all articles
Ex-Kennedy Center board member asks judge to get Trump’s name off of building
A U.S. House representative and former board member is asking a judge to issue an order forcing the center to take President Donald Trump’s name off of what till now has been known as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Representative Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, filed a motion at D.C. District Court on Wednesday asking a federal circuit court judge to reverse the recent decision to rename the building, according to NPR.
The current board voted unanimously to add Trump’s name to the center back in December, with a new sign dubbing it The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. However, Beatty — in addition to many experts — says only Congress has the power to rename the building. The renaming was never approved by Congress.
“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,’" Beatty’s attorneys wrote in the filing. “By renaming the Center — in violation of the law — Defendants have breached the terms of the trust and their most basic fiduciary obligations as trustees. Shortly after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Congress designated the Kennedy Center as the ‘sole national memorial to the late’ President in the nation’s capital.”
Roma Daravi, the vice president of public relations for the Kennedy Center, disagreed with Beatty’s assertions.
“We’re confident the court will uphold the board’s decision on the name change and the desperately needed renovations which will continue as scheduled,” she said in a statement sent to NPR.
“Donald Trump’s attempt to rename the Kennedy Center after himself is not just an act of ego,” Beatty said via email to NPR. “It is an attempt to subvert our Constitution and the rule of law. Congress established the Kennedy Center by law, and only Congress can change its name.”
Last month, Trump announced that the center would be shut down on July 4 for about two years in order to renovate the building.
“I’m not ripping it down,” Trump said at the time. “I’ll be using the steel. So we’re using the structure.”