Beatty sues Trump and Grenell over Kennedy Center name change

“Shortly after President Kennedy’s assassination, Congress designated the Kennedy Center as the sole national memorial to the late President within the nation’s capital. Because Congress named the center by statute, changing the Kennedy Center’s name requires an act of Congress,” Beatty wrote in the complaint.

The Democratic congresswoman is also an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board. She named all trustees of the center, including Trump, and Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell, as defendants. Many of the trustees include Trump’s closest allies, as he restructured the board in 2025.

“The sitting President and his handpicked loyalists renamed this storied center after President Trump. This is a flagrant violation of the rule of law, and it flies in the face of our constitutional order,” Beatty wrote.

She said in the lawsuit that she called into the board’s vote on the name change and was muted when she tried to speak against the move. However, Grenell staunchly defended against this point on Thursday when Beatty first spoke out on X.

“You are a non-voting ex-officio member. All ex-officio Members never get to vote,” Grenell said in an X post responding to Beatty.

Beatty asked the court in the complaint to declare the board’s vote null and void and to declare the name of the building “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.” She also asked the court to bar the defendants from changing the name again and to order the removal of any signage or products that refer to the building as the Trump-Kennedy Center.

BOARD ‘UNANIMOUSLY’ VOTES TO CHANGE NAME TO ‘TRUMP-KENNEDY CENTER’

The White House did not respond to the Washington Examiner‘s request for comment on the lawsuit. Leavitt touted the renaming on Thursday on X.

“I have just been informed that the highly respected Board of the Kennedy Center, some of the most successful people from all parts of the world, have just voted unanimously to rename the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center, because of the unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building,” she wrote. “Not only from the standpoint of its reconstruction, but also financially, and its reputation. Congratulations to President Donald J. Trump, and likewise, congratulations to President Kennedy, because this will be a truly great team long into the future!”