Legal experts told NBC News earlier this year that the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson administration-era statutes governing the creation of the Kennedy Center had enshrined the original name in legislation. They added that a new law passed by both chambers of Congress and signed by the president would be needed to change the name.
It does not appear that officials in the Trump administration heeded those legal concerns, which were shared by lawmakers in both parties on Thursday, before installing his name on the building Friday.
Former Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, a grandnephew of the late president, said Thursday afternoon in a statement that the center “is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law. It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says.”
In a separate statement Thursday, six Democratic lawmakers who serve as ex-officio members of the Kennedy Center board said they would hold the administration accountable for violating the law.
“Beyond using the Kennedy Center to reward his friends and political allies, President Trump is now attempting to affix his name to yet another public institution without legal authority. Federal law established the Center as a memorial to President Kennedy and prohibits changing its name without Congressional action,” the lawmakers wrote in a statement, adding later, “as ex-officio members of the Kennedy Center Board, we will be unwavering in our commitment to holding this Administration accountable.”
The minority leaders of the House and Senate — Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. — were among those who signed the statement.
Another ex-officio member of the board who didn’t vote for the change, Sen. Shelly Moore Capito, R-W.V., told reporters at the Capitol on Thursday, “the Kennedy Center, in my view, is the Kennedy Center.”
Capito and several other Republican senators said they believed the name would have to be changed through legislation in Congress.
“I would assume so, because it’s mentioned more than a few times as the Kennedy Center in legislation, so I would imagine that’s the case,” the West Virginia senator told reporters.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Thursday “we’ll look at” whether a name change requires new legislation.
“I’m not familiar with the process of how this is done,” Thune said. “There’s a question of whether or not it’s in law. Is it statutory? Do we have to change the law to do these sorts of things? And I’m sure we’ll get all the answers to that in due time.”
Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, another ex-officio member of the board, disputed the president’s assertion that the board vote was “unanimous,” saying a name change wasn’t on the agenda distributed before the meeting and that she was repeatedly muted on a video call when she sought to raise her concerns about it.
“I said, ‘I have something to say,’ and I was muted, and as I continued to try to unmute to ask questions and voiced my opposition to this, I received a note saying that I would not be unmuted,” Beatty told reporters Thursday.
Roma Daravi, center’s vice president of public relations, told NBC News in a statement that Beatty is not a voting member of the board and that she was granted the “privilege” to listen into Thursday’s board meeting.
“The entire board was invited to attend in person and the privilege of listening in on the meeting was granted to all members, even those without a vote, such as ex-officio member Joyce Beatty,” Daravi said.
Frank Thorp V and Kyle Stewart contributed.