U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty said President Donald Trump went into a "tantrum" at a Sept. 15 board meeting for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Beatty, a Columbus Democrat and ex officio member of the board, has been at the center of a dispute over whether the center could be renamed to include Trump. During an appearance on MS Now's "The Weeknight", Beatty described a contentious exchange with Trump at the Sept. 15 meeting.
"I mean, let me just make it simple," Beatty said on MS Now. "It was the most unprofessional thing that I have ever witnessed."
Beatty sued over the renaming in December. She asked the federal court to step in and find the renaming of the center unlawful, and to issue an order requiring the new signage that added
Trump's name to be removed. She said she is the only member of Congress in history to sue a sitting president and win.
The Sept. 15 meeting started with information about Beatty's legal victory, and she said that inflamed Trump, who Beatty said called her an "obstructionist," "dumb" and "incompetent."
The board voted Sept. 15 to shutter the performing arts center due to safety concerns over the state of the building, which is need of serious repair. The day before the closure vote, officials from the Kennedy Center said the institution would face imminent bankruptcy, and Trump wouldn't rescue the center financially unless his name was added to the building's facade.
The Sept. 15 board decision came quickly after U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the Kennedy Center's plans to add an inscription on the building that says "renovated and restored by Donald J. Trump" cannot move forward because it violates a prior order to remove the president's name from the center's name and signage.
"The closing will take place immediately, however, the Renovation and Reconstruction, which is a very large and complex job, cannot begin until such time as the D.C. Circuit rules on the Board’s approved name," Trump said in a Truth Social post. "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. The attorneys from the DOJ will ask for an expedited appeal. In the meantime, 17 Million Dollars, raised by President Trump, has been put into The Kennedy Center account to keep it afloat."
Trump "went into a tantrum," Beatty said
Beatty told MS Now that Trump went into a "tantrum" during the meeting and called her names.
"But I was not going to let him call me awful things," Beatty told the MS Now hosts. "And he said he was going to hold me responsible if something fell out of the ceiling and killed someone. And I told him, I said: 'You're already killing people. We're at war.'"
Trump went on to say he didn't know anything about Beatty and that she had never done anything, Beatty said.
"So I reminded him that he had more bankruptcies than anybody in the room," she said.
The board members voted to go with the plan to close the center, which Beatty said she did not vote for.
After Trump's name was put on the building "unlawfully," Beatty said, performers pulled out of scheduled appearances, hurting the center financially.
A new program plan "never happened because Donald Trump wanted to close it all along, and especially after Beatty v. Trump was victorious in court," Beatty told the hosts.
"If he doesn't get what he wants, he literally comes on and he's hollering and screaming, and it doesn't matter if it's the judge or his family" Beatty said. "Anybody that does not side with him, he attacks them. He just picked the wrong person today."
There is no recording of the meeting, Beatty said. She has asked for a transcript, and she said she took notes during the meeting.
Lawsuits, judicial decisions backbone of Kennedy Center saga
The original decision to add Trump’s name to the title came after the Kennedy Center board, comprised of Trump appointees, voted in favor of the change on Dec. 18. Because of her position in Congress, Beatty is an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board.
Beatty alleges that she was prevented from speaking in opposition to the name change during the board meeting where the vote occurred. She also previously claimed she wasn’t invited to a board meeting, but her attorneys later shared that the email invite had ended up in her spam folder.
In the lawsuit, Beatty argued that the decision of the board was “legally void” and that the decision to rename the center to include Trump's name was “turning a national memorial into a political vanity project.”
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington reversed the decision May 29, stating that congressional approval would be required to change the name of the center. As a result of the judge's decision, the Kennedy Center had 14 days to remove Trump’s name from any signage or promotional material. Cooper also blocked the board's March vote to close the center for two years for renovations, arguing the action lacked serious consideration by the board.
USA TODAY contributed to this report.
Dispatch Reporter Nora Igelnik can be reached at nigelnik@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Joyce Beatty describes Trump 'tantrum' at Kennedy Center board meeting
