Trump's Kennedy Center name fight gets new twist over 'irrevocably damaged' facade claim

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump’s aspiration to add his name to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts building has taken a new turn amid allegations that the attempt to add Trump's name left "irrevocable damage."

Trump began his efforts to add his name to the historic building in late 2025. He recently succeeded in doing so after the Trump-backed board approved the plan.

However, the US district court struck down the board’s decision, forcing the center's administration to remove the president’s name from the building’s facade.

Trump's lawyers don't dispute damage claim over renaming

Lawyers for President Donald Trump didn't dispute the allegations that adding the president’s name to the building caused “irrevocable damage” to the facade of the Kennedy Center.

The allegation was made by Rep Joyce Beatty (D-OH), an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center's board of trustees, in a court filing that surfaced on Wednesday, August 26.

Beatty is fighting against the Trump administration’s push to add his name to the Kennedy Center building. Beatty's attorneys argued in the filing that the administration's silence was itself an admission.

The government's current filing does not state that Trump's name caused the reported damage.

"Tellingly, defendants do not dispute that their prior efforts to emblazon the building with President Trump's name may have irrevocably damaged the center's historic marble facade," Beatty's lawyers wrote in the motion.

The motion filed by Beatty’s lawyers seeks an urgent hearing.

While accusing the Trump administration of defying the federal judge who ruled that the center's public spaces can honor only President John F Kennedy, the filing noted that the court was blunt in its observation.

"Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it," the judge wrote in the decision, which the filing quoted.

Beatty's lawyers call covering of facade damage admission

Since Trump’s name was removed from the building, a tarp and scaffolding have obscured the area where the letters once stood.

In an earlier court filing, the Kennedy Center board argued the covering was necessary for “water testing and structural repairs to the roof overhang.”

“The protective barrier around the scaffolding was and is a necessary element of the ongoing construction activities at the Center,” lawyers for Trump and the board wrote in the filing.

However, Beatty’s lawyers framed the reasoning as an admission from the government that the venue’s “historic marble” has been damaged, possibly while Trump’s name was added and removed.

“Adding another inscription or inscriptions, in naked defiance of this Court’s ruling, obviously could do further damage,” her lawyers wrote.