Donald Trump has been hit with legal action over his renaming of the Kennedy Center.
Former White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who is among those challenging the name change in the lawsuit, confirmed the president would be taken to task on the damaging name change. Speaking with CBS, Eisen said, “The damages have been substantial, and that will be addressed in the case.”
“They include far more, of course, than the high cost of signage and of the other naming changes. The losses to the performing corps, to the audience base, to the bottom line of the Center, to its memorial and other activities and indeed to the arts and arts education themselves have been vast.”
Ohio Democrat Rep. Joyce Beatty filed a federal civil lawsuit against Trump calling for a name change to the Kennedy Center. A judge’s order has been sought to return the name to “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” and to nullify the vote to have changed the name of the arts venue.
Trump had replaced the Kennedy Center board members with a group of his own, and a subsequent vote on the name change then passed.
The mood in the Kennedy Center since the name change has been commented on by an insider, who says the atmosphere soured soon after Trump waded in to make sweeping changes.
A venue insider, speaking to The Guardian‘s Charlotte Higgins, says the atmosphere post-name change is very negative. They said it was like a “funeral parlor – there’s a deathly pall over the place”.
An annual concert which is performed on Martin Luther King Day has been scrapped, while the Washington National Opera confirmed this month they would leave the Kennedy Center. They had used the arts center as their base of performance since 1971, but are now looking for alternative accommodation.
House Democrats have since introduced two bills which could intervene in the Kennedy Center renaming.
Rep. April McClain Delaney confirmed a bill had been introduced to “require the removal of any signage or other identification from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts that differs from the designation ‘John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.’”
Delaney said, “A president can’t enshrine himself. This is what authoritarian leaders do, it’s arrogant and it’s narcissistic.”
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