Govind TekaleCongresswoman Joyce Beatty has asked a federal judge to stop the Kennedy Center from putting President Trump’s name back on the building.
Beatty filed an emergency motion in the case Beatty v. Trump (No. 1:25-cv-04480) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The case is before Judge Christopher R. Cooper.
The Kennedy Center’s board voted on August 13, 2026, to approve new signage. The proposed text reads: “The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump, Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.” The board also proposed renaming the grounds “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.” If both changes go through, Trump’s name would appear on the building’s front twice.
The Kennedy Center had told the court it would not add Trump’s name before September 8. Beatty’s lawyers called that an “arbitrary deadline” and said the center created “an unnecessarily fire drill.”
Beatty sits on the Kennedy Center board as an ex-officio trustee. She says she was stopped from speaking when she tried to object at the August 13 meeting.
This is not the first round in the case. Beatty first sued in December 2025, after the board voted to rename the center and quickly put up signage. Her argument is simple: Congress named the Kennedy Center by law, as a memorial to President Kennedy. Only Congress can change that name. The board cannot do it on its own.
On May 29, 2026, Judge Cooper agreed with that argument. He wrote that the center’s statute “makes crystal clear” the building must be named for Kennedy, and that “only Congress can change” the name.
Beatty’s new filing argues the board’s latest move is an attempt to get around that ruling by dressing the name change up as a restoration credit rather than a formal renaming. She called it “a new and breathtaking act of defiance of Congress and of this Court.”
A minute order filed August 22 set a hearing for August 27, 2026, at 2:00 PM before Judge Cooper. The judge will decide whether to block the facade work while the case continues.
The Kennedy Center board, most of whose members were appointed by Trump, says its actions are legal and fall within its authority over the center’s branding and fundraising. The board has tied the new name to the “Trump Kennedy Center Fund,” and says the final line of the facade text will only go up once that fund reaches $100 million.
Trump has not issued a direct, on-the-record response to this emergency motion. His team has previously described the naming as recognition of his role in funding and renovating the center, but no statement addressing this specific court filing could be confirmed.
