Whistleblower claims Kennedy Center ‘rushed’ renovations to please Trump

Summary

A United States senator has published a whistleblower complaint alleging that allies of President Donald Trump mismanaged renovations at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in order to please the president’s “aesthetic whims”. On Saturday, Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island released a letter addressed to the Kennedy Center’s leadership, conveying the accusations. They include claims that the Kennedy Center, under Trump, bypassed standard procedures for awarding government contracts and approved unnecessary — or faulty — projects. “These are not isolated lapses but a single pattern that runs counter to everything the Center has told Congress it would do with the public’s money,” Whitehouse wrote . “Instead of pursuing renovations tailored to the building’s actual needs, the Center rushed a series of renovations driven by the President’s aesthetic whims and his desire to star in a series of televised events in December.” That month, Trump had hosted the FIFA World Cup final draw, which helps determine the group-stage matches for the football tournament. The draw doubled as a ceremony to celebrate Trump himself, who was awarded the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize by the organisation’s president, Gianni Infantino. Two days later, on December 7, Trump again took the stage to emcee the Kennedy Center Honors , an annual ceremony that recognises lifetime contributions to US art and culture. Trump was the first president to host the award show, and he said he was “very involved” in the honourees’ selection. To prepare the Kennedy Center for those dates, its officials worked “in unusually close consultation” with Trump’s White House, according to the whistleblower report Whitehouse obtained. Established by an act of Congress, the theatre complex also acts as a living memorial to slain President John K Kennedy, who was assassinated while in office in 1963. A court later ruled in May that Trump’s name had to come off the building , citing Congress’s authority over the Kennedy Center. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” Judge Christopher Cooper wrote at the time. Whitehouse, who serves on the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, issued a warning against any half-baked projects, though. “Public funds ought to be spent lawfully, prudently, and in service of the institution, not on the stylistic whims of the current President,” he wrote.