Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) on Dec. 22 sued President Donald Trump and the Kennedy Center board of trustees over the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts being renamed the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

“Only Congress has the authority to rename the Kennedy Center. President Trump and his cronies must not be allowed to trample federal law and bypass Congress to feed his ego,” said Beatty in a statement. “This entire process has been a complete disgrace to this cherished institution and the people it serves. These unlawful actions must be blocked before any further damage is done.”

On Dec. 18, the Kennedy Center board unanimously voted to rename the institution the Trump-Kennedy Center. That same day, new lettering was installed on the outside of the building along with digital rebranding.

The lawsuit called the renaming “a flagrant violation of the rule of law, and it flies in the face of our constitutional order.”

It requests that a judge restore the name “John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

Lawyers representing Beatty said, “Congress named the Kennedy Center as a national memorial to President Kennedy, and only Congress can change that.”

“The President and his sycophants have no lawful authority to rename the Kennedy Center,” said Nathaniel Zelinsky, senior counsel at the Washington Litigation Group, and Norman Eisen, founder of Democracy Defenders Action, in a statement.

“We are proud to represent Congresswoman Beatty as she defends the integrity of this institution and the separation of powers.”

In a statement, the Kennedy Center said that the lawsuit does not affect the institution’s operations.

“The Kennedy Memorial is not impacted at all. Trump raised over $131 million in private and corporate donations and had Congress give $257 million for critical infrastructure needs, all to SAVE this institution. There was over $250 million of deferred maintenance repairs immediately needed,” Roma Daravi, vice president of public relations at the Kennedy Center, told The Epoch Times.

“Those individuals attacking now sat idly by while America’s cultural center slowly crumbled,” she continued. “Now the bipartisan Trump Kennedy Center is here for generations to come.”

The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in Washington on Dec. 21, 2025. The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees said it decided unanimously to rename the facility. (Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times)

In a statement to The Epoch Times, White House spokesperson Liz Huston echoed Daravi’s words.

“After years of neglect by Democrats, President Trump stepped up and saved the old Kennedy Center by strengthening its finances, modernizing the building, and ending divisive woke programming,” she said. “As a result, the Board of the Kennedy Center voted unanimously to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Center—a historic move that marks a new era of success, prestige, and restored grandeur for one of America’s most iconic cultural institutions.”

Trump said he was “very honored” by the renaming.

“The board is a very distinguished board, most distinguished people in the country, and I was surprised by it. I was honored by it,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Dec. 18.

Daravi previously told The Epoch Times, “The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees voted unanimously today to name the institution The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

“The unanimous vote recognizes that the current chairman saved the institution from financial ruin and physical destruction,“ Daravi said. ”The new Trump-Kennedy Center reflects the unequivocal bipartisan support for America’s cultural center for generations to come.”

Trump is the chairman of the Kennedy Center, and Ric Grenell is the president.

When asked on Dec. 7 whether the Kennedy Center would be renamed after him, Trump said it was up to the board.

Board members include Second Lady Usha Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi, U.S. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Fox News hosts Maria Bartiromo and Laura Ingraham, and Dan Scavino, White House presidential personnel office director and deputy chief of staff.

Trump took over the Kennedy Center shortly after taking office, firing the board and its president, billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein, saying that they did not share his “vision for a Golden Age in arts and culture.”

The president recently attended Kennedy Center events, including the opening of “Les Misérables” and the FIFA World Cup Draw. He hosted the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony earlier this month.

Members of the Kennedy family criticized the renaming.

“The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law,” former Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.) said. “It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says.”

Kerry Kennedy, the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, in a post on X, said Trump’s name “should not be placed alongside President Kennedy’s,” who “proudly stood for justice, peace, equality, dignity, diversity, and compassion for those who suffer.”