Kennedy Center official tells judge removing Trump's name would make them go broke

A key official for the Kennedy Center argued to a federal judge this week that the famed venue would see a collapse in donation revenue if President Donald Trump's name were to be removed from the building.

The filing, part of a lawsuit brought against Trump by Kennedy Center boardmember and Democratic congresswoman Joyce Beatty, was flagged on Wednesday morning by Lawfare senior editor Roger Parloff in a post to X.

"Should President Trump's name be removed from the Center, that vital fundraising connection will be severed, causing irreparable harm and fundamentally destabilizing the Center's development efforts, severely impairing its trust-funded artistic programming, and rendering the continuation of ongoing trust-funded operations financially nonviable," wrote Kennedy Center Chief Operating Officer Charles Matthew Floca.

Since taking office, Trump has aggressively moved to bring control of the Kennedy Center under his thumb, appointing loyalists to the board overseeing it who proceeded to add Trump's name to the facility.

Since then, the Kennedy Center has seen a catastrophic decline of sales, revenue, and performers unwilling to endorse the president's image. Officials have responded with a move to shut down the Kennedy Center for two years of renovation work, which critics have said is an effort to conceal how badly the institution's finances have been impacted.

Beatty is not alone in her litigation, with historic preservation groups also filing suit against the changes to the Kennedy Center.