A woman walks along the front of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on a day when the center’s board voted to inscribe onto the building “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump”, in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 13, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board's new bid to carve President Donald Trump's name back onto the building's facade has been torn apart in an emergency court filing.
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), an ex-officio Kennedy Center trustee, filed the emergency motion Thursday after the board voted Aug. 13 to inscribe Trump's name on the building's historic front portico twice and rename the plaza in front of the building "President Donald J. Trump Plaza."
The filing calls the plan a "breathtaking act of defiance" of both Congress and the court — and demands a judge block it before September 8.
"Now, in a new and breathtaking act of defiance of Congress and of this Court, Defendants have voted to return President Trump's name to the Kennedy Center's façade," the filing said.
According to the filing, under the board's resolution, Trump's name would appear below President Kennedy's on the front portico in two places.
"Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump," the first inscription would read, according to the filing.
A second line — "Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund" — would be added once the fund reached $100 million, the filing said. One board trustee appointed by Trump said after the vote that he would support Trump's name being included "everywhere that it could be possible," according to the filing.
The plan comes despite a May ruling by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper of the District of Columbia, who found the board had no legal authority to put Trump's name on the building.
"Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it," Cooper wrote in that ruling.
The filing calls the board's new legal maneuvering its "latest ruse" — an attempt to rename the institution for Trump without calling it a renaming.
Any suggestion the new inscriptions fall outside the law's prohibition on additional memorials at the Kennedy Center, the filing said, is "risible, both in light of the record evidence and as a matter of common sense."
A tarp has covered the building's iconic facade since June, when workers removed Trump's name under court order, and the filing warns the original installation may have damaged the historic marble beneath it.
The Washington National Opera departed the Kennedy Center in January after 55 years, and ticket sales plummeted following the December 2025 renaming, according to NPR reporting.
"Enough is enough," the filing said.