WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump threw a “tantrum” during a Kennedy Center board meeting when he learned that a federal judge blocked his administration’s latest effort to put his name on the institution’s building, according to a Democratic congresswoman who serves on the board.
Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, the lead plaintiff who the judge sided with in his ruling, recounted the heated Sept. 15 meeting in an appearance on MS NOW. She said the meeting, conducted on Zoom, opened with an update: in the case of Beaty v. Trump, “Beatty had been victorious.”
“And he went into a tantrum,” Beatty said. “I mean, let me just make it simple. It was the most unprofessional thing that I’ve ever witnessed or been a part of. He went into name-calling, everything from trying to say that I was an obstructionist, I was dumb. He said, ‘I think you’re incompetent.’ And I said, ‘I know you’re incompetent.'”
Trump was in attendance as the board’s chairman after appointing himself to the role weeks into his second White House term.
More: Judge blocks Kennedy Center’s plan to add Trump’s name back on building
U.S. Representative Joyce Beatty (D-OH), ex officio member of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees speaks to the media next to lawyer Nathaniel Zelinsky outside the U.S. District Courthouse on August 27, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Shortly before the board met, U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the Kennedy Center’s plan to add an inscription below the building’s sign to honor Trump’s financial contributions violates federal law and the judge’s previous ruling in May ordering the Kennedy Center to remove Trump’s name from the center’s title and signage.
As the president aired his frustrations to her, Beatty said she asked the president, “‘Are we really going to do this? This is really unprofessional.’ But I was not going to let him call me awful things. And he said he was going to hold me responsible if something fell out of the ceiling (of the Kennedy Center) and killed someone.”
“And I told him, I said, ‘You’re already killing people. We’re at war. We also have people who are starving,'” the congresswoman added.
More: Kennedy Center votes to close as Trump threatens to spike renovations
President Donald Trump speaks to the media after attending a board meeting at the Kennedy Center, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 17, 2025.
The board, composed mostly of Trump loyalists handpicked by the president, voted at the meeting to close the bulk of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts immediately for renovations pushed by Trump. Kennedy Center officials aligned with Trump say the building has fallen into disrepair, posing safety hazards to people attending shows. Officials have also warned about severe financial troubles and potential bankruptcy unless Trump’s financial pledge and planned overhaul becomes a reality.
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But Trump, in a social media post after the meeting, warned that he won’t move forward with the renovations ‒ which he would pay for with his own money ‒ unless the judge’s decision blocking his name from being attached to the building is overturned. The Justice Department has appealed the decision.
“If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place,” Trump said.
Guards patrol in front of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on the day of a vote by the board to shut down the center for repairs, which means the building will close immediately, in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 15, 2026.
When asked to respond to Beatty’s claims about the board meeting, the White House did not deny the congresswoman’s account.
“For decades, Democrats let the Kennedy Center rot as water damage spread, infrastructure crumbled, and a national treasure fell apart under their watch,” White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said. “President Trump did what Democrats wouldn’t by finally committing the resources and the leadership needed to restore the Kennedy Center and make it the finest performing arts facility in the world.”
Recounting the board meeting, Beatty said Trump touted his career as a developer and told her that she had “never done anything.”
“So I reminded him that he had more bankruptcies than anybody in the room,” Beatty said. “I mean, it really went there, because I was not going to let him ‒ he was there in his role as chairman of the board ‒ bully me, intimidate me, and the facts for themselves.”
Beatty added: “He didn’t win. He didn’t get his vanity project. He didn’t get his name on it for the second time, so now he’s attacking folks.”
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump threw ‘tantrum’ during Kennedy Center meeting, congresswoman says