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More details are coming to light regarding renovations at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
In a six-page letter addressed on July 9 to Matt Floca, the executive director of the Kennedy Center under President Donald Trump’s leadership, Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse demanded information related to the building’s recent renovations.
Whitehouse said that information he obtained “from whistleblowers” reveal that the Kennedy Center has allegedly “mismanaged federally appropriated funds” and “conducted rushed renovation and maintenance work with disregard to its commitments to Congress.”
According to internal documents sent to Congress by lawyers for the whistleblowers, the renovations at the Kennedy Center appear to have been messy and mismanaged.
Beginning in February 2025, after Trump appointed himself as Chairman, Kennedy Center management allegedly “worked in unusually close consultation with the White House to rush a series of renovations to meet deadlines tied to the President’s desire to host events at the Center in December 2025.”
The letter claims that, among the renovations, Trump’s “preferred contractor cut corners when repainting the Center’s columns, sticking taxpayers with the repair bill.”
The repainted steel columns have allegedly began rusting, and repainting them is estimated to cost over $1.5 million.
The “cosmetic revamp” of the reflecting pool at the Kennedy Center “is already rusting and peeling,” according to the findings. It is apparently “unevenly painted and rusting.”
The Kennedy Center also “tore out a brand-new bathroom floor because President Trump didn’t like the color,” according to the documents.
“New tile floors had just been installed in the bathrooms of the Presidential boxes — beige in one, white in the other two — when the President toured the building on March 17, 2025,” the letter to Floca stated. “The next morning, Center staff were told the White House disliked the beige tile and wanted it replaced. When staff asked for written confirmation before demolishing brand-new work, Center leadership advised that it had received confirmation from White House leadership. The Center then demolished the brand-new floor and replaced the tile.”
Whitehouse called the Kennedy Center’s “subservience to the President’s desires and its corner-cutting contracting practices” a “waste,” adding: “It treats a national memorial to President Kennedy as if it were a private renovation project.”
In a statement to the New York Times, Kennedy Center spokeswoman Roma Daravi said, “As America’s cultural center, the institution makes every decision guided by responsible stewardship and an unwavering commitment to its patrons and the nation it proudly serves.”
“We remain fully committed to transparency and to delivering the critical improvements that will preserve this institution for generations to come,” the statement added.
Additionally, White House spokeswoman Liz Huston defended the renovations.
“President Trump did what Democrats wouldn’t,” she said. “After decades of neglect, he committed the bold leadership and proper resources to fix the Kennedy Center and start the renovations of the finest performing arts facility in the world.”
For more information on the major changes happening at the Kennedy Center, read BroadwayWorld’s complete timeline of events.
