Federal court is asked to block Kennedy Center from returning Trump’s name to building

Federal court is asked to block Kennedy Center from returning Trump’s name to building 1 of 2 | The exterior of the Kennedy Center is seen, Friday, July 31, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) 2 of 2 | The Kennedy Center is seen from the Washington Monument, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) 1 of 2 | The exterior of the Kennedy Center is seen, Friday, July 31, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) 1 of 2 The exterior of the Kennedy Center is seen, Friday, July 31, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share 2 of 2 | The Kennedy Center is seen from the Washington Monument, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) 2 of 2 The Kennedy Center is seen from the Washington Monument, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] Washington (AP) — Rep. Joyce Beatty made an emergency request on Thursday that a Federal court block the Kennedy Center from returning President Donald Trump’s name to the building.The Trump-aligned board at the Kennedy Center voted earlier this month to inscribe the president’s name on the venue’s facade so it would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.” If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, another inscription would be added reading “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”The plaza in front of the Kennedy Center would also be renamed to recognize Trump.The Kennedy Center has said it wouldn’t attempt to engrave Trump’s name on the building before Sept. 8 to allow for legal arguments to unfold. Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio member of the Kennedy Center, has led the effort to prevent Trump from memorializing himself there. In asking for the court’s intervention, her lawyers, Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky, wrote that the board’s actions amounted to “clear violations” of an earlier court order. A representative for the Kennedy Center didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The resolution approved by Trump’s allies on the board said the Kennedy 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 as a living memorial to Kennedy in 1964, the year after he was assassinated. The law explicitly prohibits the board of trustees from making the center into a memorial to anyone else, and from putting another person’s name on the building’s exterior. 3 MIN READ 5 MIN READ 2 MIN READ U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper ruled in May that the Kennedy Center illegally added Trump’s name to the building, ordering it removed. The institution’s leaders complied in June but left a tarp and scaffolding in place where Trump’s name once stood. Lawyers for the Kennedy Center wouldn’t commit this week to taking down the scaffolding, saying it’s needed as part of a broader system for “water testing and structural repairs to the roof overhang.”