REP. JOYCE BEATTY filed an emergency motion Thursday asking a federal judge to stop the Kennedy Center from returning President Donald Trump’s name to its facade.
The request renews a legal fight over the identity of a national institution that Congress designated as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy. It also tests whether the center’s Trump-aligned board can proceed with a recognition plan after a judge ruled that its earlier addition of Trump’s name was illegal.
The board voted this month to place a new inscription on the building declaring: “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.”
The resolution provides for another line, “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund,” if the fund reaches $100 million and names the center’s grounds the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.” The board also approved a two-year closure of the performing arts venue.
The board defended the plan by declaring that the center “would be in financial ruin without President Trump’s unique stature as both an unparalleled fundraiser and world-class developer.”
Congress named the performing arts center for Kennedy in 1964, one year after his assassination. Federal law requires the board to maintain the center as a memorial to Kennedy and prohibits additional memorials or memorial-like plaques in its public spaces.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled in May that the center had acted illegally when it added Trump’s name to the building. Cooper ordered the name removed. Center officials complied in June.
Beatty, who represents Ohio in Congress and holds an ex officio seat on the board, is asking Cooper to enforce his earlier ruling. Her attorneys, Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky, characterized the trustees’ latest action as “clear violations” of that order.
The immediate legal question is whether the revised inscription and the proposed plaza name amount to another attempt to memorialize Trump at a site Congress reserved for Kennedy. Beatty’s motion asks Cooper to halt the plan before the board can carry it out.
The center has committed not to implement the resolution before Sept. 8, giving the parties time to present their arguments.
Trump’s name is no longer attached to the facade. A tarp and scaffolding remain where the lettering stood, leaving part of the building’s exterior covered.
The center has given no firm date for removing the structures. Its lawyers said the scaffolding and covering form part of a broader system needed for “water testing and structural repairs to the roof overhang.”
Beatty’s emergency request places the dispute back before Cooper ahead of the Sept. 8 deadline. His decision will determine whether the board may proceed with its new inscription and plaza designation under the existing court order.
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DJT is like a dog pissing on things he wants to mark as his own
He will tie up the courts with new filings and appeals for the next two years, if allowed….🤬