Trump Sued by Kennedy Center Trustee for Renaming Venue (1)

President Donald Trump was sued for adding his name last week to that of Washington’s premier art venue — the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — without approval from Congress.

US Representative Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat, accused Trump and his appointees to the Kennedy Center board of “willfully flouting the law to satisfy defendant Trump’s vanity.”

The board — with Trump self-appointed as chairman and a group of his supporters serving as trustees — voted last Thursday to change the name of the center to The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.

A day later, workers affixed Trump’s name above Kennedy’s on the facade of the national center for music, dance and theater.

Democrats and members of the Kennedy family — although not Trump’s Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. — railed against the name change.

The move is the latest in an aggressive effort by Trump and his allies to overhaul the nation’s capital in his image, including by tearing down the East Wing of the White House in order to build an oversized ballroom, renaming the US Institute of Peace after the president and moving to seize control of the city’s municipal golf courses. On Monday, Trump announced the Navy will build a new “Trump-class” battleship.

Earlier: Kennedy Center Adds Trump’s Name to Sign a Day After Board Vote

In the early 1960s, then-President Kennedy pushed for the building of what was originally to be called the National Cultural Center. After he was assassinated in 1963, Congress renamed the center in his honor.

“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,” according to the lawsuit. “Because Congress named the center by statute, changing the Kennedy Center’s name requires an act of Congress.”

The Kennedy Center’s press office and the White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment late Monday night.

Last week, a center spokeswoman, Roma Daravi, said in a statement that Trump’s name was added because he “saved the institution from financial ruin and physical destruction.”

Beatty is an ex-officio member of the board. She said in the suit that during the virtual meeting when the name change was voted on, she was muted when she tried to object.

Since Trump took over the center in February, ticket sales have plunged and a number of artists have refused to perform there.

Among the Kennedy Center board members named in the suit are Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Attorney General Pam Bondi, country singer Lee Greenwood and Fox News host Laura Ingraham.

The suit is Beatty v. Trump, 1:25-cv-04480, US District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

(Updates with context in sixth paragraph.)

--With assistance from Kate Sullivan.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Robert Burnson in San Francisco at rburnson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.net

Peter Blumberg, John Harney

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