A legal fight over the identity of one of America’s most iconic cultural institutions is intensifying, as Rep. Joyce Beatty pushes a federal court to prevent any attempt to attach President Donald Trump’s name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
In a motion filed Wednesday, Beatty argued that the center—established by Congress as a tribute to John F. Kennedy—is legally bound to remain solely dedicated to the late president. Her filing seeks partial summary judgment to immediately halt any rebranding efforts.
The dispute stems from a controversial decision by the center’s board, whose members were selected by Trump, to modify the institution’s name and update its signage to include his. Beatty responded with a lawsuit in December, accusing the board of attempting to “rename, shutter and gut” the historic venue.
Her legal team, led by Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky, told the court that the board’s actions have no valid legal basis. They claim officials have yet to present a “coherent defense of their nakedly unlawful actions,” arguing that federal law clearly defines the center’s purpose and naming.
Central to the case is the statute that created the Kennedy Center. According to Beatty’s lawyers, the law explicitly requires that the facility be “designated” as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts—wording they say leaves no room for additional names.
“There is no clearer or more significant breach of fiduciary duty than the Board flouting the central purpose of the institution it is charged with protecting and which Congress enshrined into law: to maintain the Center as a memorial to John F. Kennedy — and to no one else,” her lawyers wrote in a motion for partial summary judgment.
They further argued that strict limitations in the law prohibit adding memorials or similar recognitions in public areas, except under narrow circumstances such as plaques for foreign gifts or donor acknowledgments—none of which apply to the current situation.
“None of these narrow exceptions permit the trustees to add President Trump’s name to the Center’s façade — above President Kennedy’s name — and to rebrand the Center as the ‘Trump Kennedy Center,’” Eisen and Zelinsky wrote.
Beyond the naming dispute, Beatty is also challenging a broader restructuring plan that could see the center closed for up to two years for a complete rebuild. Earlier this month, a federal judge allowed her to attend the board meeting where the proposal was finalized but declined to grant her voting rights on the decision.
The case now places the future identity—and potentially the operations—of the Kennedy Center in the hands of the federal judiciary, with implications for how national memorials can be altered or reinterpreted.
