The Democrat who sued to strip President Trump's name off the Kennedy Center now says his board is turning the venue into a "lifeless husk" — and the real scandal is that working Americans are still forced to fund the whole operation.
Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, an ex officio board member, filed a lawsuit in December 2025 after the board voted to display Trump's name alongside Kennedy's on the building. Now her lawyers argue in a Friday court filing that the Trump-led board is violating a May court order by "refusing to take any steps to maintain the Center's operations" and will "effectively close the Center as a performing arts venue come July 5, 2026." "They plan to turn the Kennedy Center into a lifeless husk," Beatty's legal team wrote.
The Kennedy Center's lawyers pushed back, telling the court that "the Court's order did not affirmatively require the Board to reschedule programming that had previously been cancelled or to seek new programming."
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper's May order blocked the Center's planned two-year closure for renovations and directed that Trump's name be removed from the building — which happened last weekend. Cooper's 94-page opinion noted there were "at least some plans to restart rehearsals, performances and educational programming" but did not explicitly mandate that shows resume immediately. He did write that the board "bears an affirmative duty to carry out the Center's programming and maintain a memorial to President Kennedy. It may not simply stop putting on shows altogether."
The Center says management will present reopening recommendations and the board is weighing three options: a full closure with no programming, a partial closure keeping some areas open, or a phased repair plan restoring full programming. A vote is scheduled for mid-July.
The power struggle started in February 2025, when Trump replaced several trustees and appointed himself chairman. The new board then elected him chair and fired Center president Deborah Rutter. Trump claimed in a May 2025 speech that Rutter's leadership "wasted millions and millions of dollars and handed us a budget deficit of $26 million." He added: "The programming was out of control with rampant political propaganda, DEI, and inappropriate shows."
The new board also stripped all 23 ex officio members — including Democrats like Chuck Schumer and Trump administration officials — of voting rights.
Fox News framed the story around Beatty's hypocrisy in fighting Trump's name while now demanding he keep the lights on. What neither side wants to discuss: the Kennedy Center sits on federal land, gets federal appropriations, and serves an audience that doesn't include the truck drivers and warehouse workers footing the bill. Trump was right about the DEI programming and the deficit. Beatty has a point that the board appears to be letting the venue wither. Both are arguing over who gets to steer a taxpayer-subsidized institution that the taxpayers themselves rarely set foot in.
The question neither party will ask is the only one that matters: why does the federal government fund a performing arts center at all?
