The fight over renaming the Kennedy Center
The debate over adding Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center raises questions about presidential memorials and what they reveal about our values today.
- Rep. Joyce Beatty accused Trump in a court filing of not inviting her to an upcoming Kennedy Center board meeting.
- An invitation to the meeting was later found in the spam folder of her email inbox.
Rep. Joyce Beatty made an unfortunate blunder ahead of a court hearing in her battle with President Donald Trump over the fate of the Kennedy Center.
The Columbus Democrat and Kennedy Center board member sued Trump and other board members in December over their efforts to rename the center and close it for renovations. Beatty was seeking a restraining order to make sure she could attend a board meeting and oppose the plan to close the center for two years. The case was set to go before a federal judge on the afternoon of March 12.
Ahead of the hearing, Beatty accused Trump in court filings of not inviting her to a Kennedy Center board meeting planned for next week at the White House. Department of Justice lawyers countered in court filings that she was invited to the board meeting.
As first reported by The Hill, the invite landed in her inbox’s spam folder, her attorneys later confirmed in a follow-up court filing.
“Upon further investigation, it appears that the email regarding the Board meeting was routed to Plaintiff’s spam folder,” Beatty’s attorneys wrote.
They emphasized that the center’s general counsel ignored Beatty for two days and that she had reason to believe she was being excluded.
“Her being ‘permitted to attend’ does not come anywhere close to remediating her harms,” Beatty’s attorneys wrote, saying she’s been silenced before.
Beatty says she was muted and denied the opportunity to speak at a December board meeting at which the White House claims the board unanimously voted to change the center’s name to The Trump Kennedy Center. The institution’s legal name remains John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, unless Congress formally changes it.
A spokesperson for Beatty did not immediately respond to The Dispatch’s request for comment.
Government and politics reporter Jordan Laird can be reached at jlaird@dispatch.com. Follow her on X, Instagram and Bluesky at @LairdWrites.
