Joyce Beatty

Donald Trump and the board of the Kennedy Center have responded to a congresswoman’s lawsuit contending that the addition of the president’s name to the center and the plans for a two-year closure are within their legal authority.

Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), an ex officio member of the board, is seeking a court order that would require the removal of Trump’s name from the arts complex and halt plans to close the center for two years for renovations.

In a filing Monday, Justice Department attorneys, representing Trump, argued that Beatty lacks Article III standing, characterizing her challenge to the board’s decision to rename the center and to close it a “generalized grievance.”

“To the point: Plaintiff has not alleged that she suffered any harm — whether ‘tangible,’ like a ‘physical’ or ‘monetary’ harm, or ‘intangible,’ like a reputational harm — stemming from the Board’s decisions to adopt a secondary name and to close for renovation,” the DOJ attorneys wrote.

A federal judge has scheduled an April 28 hearing in the case.

Trump and the trustees also want the judge to reject Beatty’s claims that the renaming was outside the board’s authority and that the closure was a breach of their fiduciary obligations. The closure is scheduled for July 7.

Beatty has not disputed that renovations are needed, but contended that it was rushed and did not go through proper review. She also warned that the center risked losing valuable staffers and audience loyalty during the closure.

The DOJ attorneys wrote, “The Center is closing for renovation because a concentrated two-year project — rather than a ‘multi-year series of patchwork repairs’ — will enable the Board to fully execute required mechanical overhauls and to conduct invasive structural repairs in as short and cost-effective a timeframe as possible.”

They also noted that the $257 million appropriated by Congress for the renovation, part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, “clearly contemplates and authorizes significant ‘capital repair’ and ‘restoration’ of the Center, along with maintenance and improvement of ‘security structures’ of the Center’s building and site.”

They also dispute that the closure plan was made on a whim. The attorneys noted that Matthew Floca, who was named executive director and chief operating officer of the center last month, had been reviewing the structural needs of the center since 2024, and concluded in January to Trump that a closure would be “the most cost-effective, safe and efficient path.”

The DOJ lawyers wrote that “the public interest will be harmed should the Board be forced to undertake repairs while keeping the Center open, as the work will result in ‘safety risks’ should construction occur while public access is maintained.”

The Justice Department attorneys also dismissed Beatty’s claim that the center could suffer the same fate as the East Wing of the White House, which Trump ordered demolished last year. They noted that the plans submitted to the board call for extensive waterproofing, improving physical security, and mechanical and plumbing improvements, among other things.

Beatty responded to the filing in a statement saying her “legal team will respond in full and in court.”

She said, “But consider just one damning fact. Donald Trump and his handpicked friends on the Board are now exposed for not doing their due diligence considering the now tragic consequences for the unlawful renaming of this treasured institution. Congress never authorized this vanity project which is defacing a sacred memorial to a fallen President, and I look forward to our day in court.”

The DOJ attorneys also wrote that adding Trump’s name to the center was within the board’s authority. “Nowhere in the Center’s governing statutes is there any limitation on the Board’s ability to use a secondary name in reference to the Center,” they wrote. They also argued that the “use of secondary names to refer to federal entities is not uncommon,” noting the Federal National Mortgage Association is known as Fannie Mae. They also pointed to the Department of Defense, which Trump renamed the Department of War. Although he and other administration officials reference it as the latter, the renaming still requires an act of Congress.

Beatty’s lawsuit pointed to a 1964 law designating the national cultural center as a memorial to John F. Kennedy. After the board voted in December to add Trump’s name, the president’s name was added to the facade the next day. The name now reads “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

The DOJ lawyers, however, wrote that such an addition still conformed with the law because the memorial to Kennedy still exists.

They noted that the “only provision that imposes any restriction on the Board’s decoration rights prohibits the Board from designating or installing ‘in the public areas’ of the Center any ‘additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials.'”

“The lettering on the building’s facade — the only change the Board made that qualifies under the provision’s regulation of ‘public areas’ — is not, and does not purport to be, a memorial to President Trump.”