The Kennedy Center's board of trustees voted Thursday to re-inscribe President Trump's name on the building's facade and rename its exterior plaza, despite a federal court order in May requiring his name be removed.
The Kennedy Center's board of trustees voted Thursday to inscribe President Donald Trump's name on the building's facade, defying a federal court order that had required his name be removed from the Washington, D.C., performing arts facility.
The board voted to have the facade read: "The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump." The board also voted to rename the physical grounds outside the building "the President Donald J. Trump Plaza," and approved closing most of the facility for two years to permit extensive renovations.
Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, whose lawsuit in D.C. federal court produced the original removal order, called Thursday's vote "a transparent effort to circumvent" that ruling. "I will continue to fight for this treasured national monument," Beatty said.
The Kennedy Center was first renamed the Trump Kennedy Center in December, roughly 10 months after Trump removed several trustees from the board and appointed himself as a trustee. The board, which is heavily stocked with Trump loyalists, includes Beatty as an ex-officio member.
On May 29, U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper ordered Trump's name removed from the building within two weeks, ruling that "Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it." Trump's name was removed in June.
Attorneys Norm Eisen of Democracy Defenders Action and Nathaniel Zelinsky of Washington Litigation Group, who represent Beatty, issued a sharp response to Thursday's vote. "A federal judge already rejected the board's unlawful attempt to rename the Kennedy Center, and told Donald Trump's handpicked board that its last closure vote was ill-informed and preordained," the two lawyers said in a statement. "Today's vote is more of the same, and a show of blatant disrespect to the courts."
"The court already ruled against the board when it bowed to Trump's demands," the lawyers added. "Now, the defendants must answer for their actions — again — in court."
The Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The board's action sets up what is expected to be a renewed round of litigation over the same legal question Judge Cooper already resolved — whether the legislature, not the executive branch, holds the exclusive authority to alter the institution's statutory name. Thursday's vote does not change that underlying legal framework, reinforcing the likelihood that federal courts will again be asked to intervene before any new inscription reaches the building's facade.
How quickly Beatty's legal team moves to seek an injunction, and whether Judge Cooper treats the vote as contempt of his earlier order, will determine the pace of the next phase of the dispute.
Jay Goldberg is a staff writer at TechEchelon covering technology, markets, and policy. He files the breaking news and deal coverage that move the publication's core desks.
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