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\n\tLast week, US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), the ranking member of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, detailed allegations that the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts \u201cmismanaged federally appropriated funds,\u201d rushed renovation work, and skirted standard government contracting procedures.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe allegations, laid out in a letter on July 9 from Whitehouse to Matt Floca, the executive director of the center, were drawn from whistleblower disclosures submitted to Whitehouse by the Government Accountability Projects. The disclosures, per Whitehouse\u2019s letter, came from firsthand accounts of multiple former project managers at the Kennedy Center, annd were supported with documents and photographs. <\/p>\n
\n\n\tAccording to the disclosure, beginning in February 2025, after President Trump reconstituted the Center\u2019s Board of Trustees and installed himself as chairman, Center management worked in unusually close consultation with the White House to rush a series of renovations to meet deadlines tied to the President\u2019s desire to host events at the Center in December 2025, including the ceremony at which President Trump received the so-called \u201cFIFA World Peace Prize.\u201d In the process, longstanding federal contracting controls were set aside, no-bid contracts were awarded, and superficial cosmetic work was performed that staff warned would have to be redone.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhitehouse also alleges that an $8 million no-bid flooring contract was awarded to South Carolina\u2019s Low Country Flooring, which Whitehouse contends have no concern-hall experience; that the Center \u201ctore out\u201d a newly renovated bathroom after Trump expressed displeasure with the color; that Trump instructed staffers to ignore federal contracting rules and \u201cdo whatever it takes\u201d to ensure he could host the new FIFA \u201cPeace Prize\u201d ceremony at the Center last December, and that the Center rewrote its contracting rules after awarding the \u201cno-bid\u201d contracts to justify the decisions.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn a statement to the New York Times<\/em>, the Kennedy Center denied the allegations, saying, \u201cWe remain fully committed to transparency and to delivering the critical improvements that will preserve this institution for generations to come.\u201d White House spokesperson Liz Huston responded to the allegations by saying that \u201cTrump did what Democrats wouldn\u2019t.\u201d In a statement to the Times<\/em>, she said, \u201cAfter 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBoth the White House and the Center did confirm the bathroom re-renovation, calling it standard design changed that caused \u201czero unnecessary burden on the taxpayer.\u201d The Center also said it consulted the Office of Management and Budget, which told them that because it is an independent entity, it does not have to abide by federal contracting regulations.<\/p>\n
\n\tPer the letter, Whitehouse called for the Center to provide documentation and responses to 18 points of inquiry to aid in the investigation.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe renovation of the Kennedy Center, like many of the projects through which Trump Administration is seeking to remake the nation\u2019s capital, has been mired in controversy. In December the administration tried to add Trump\u2019s name to the Center so that it would be the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. That was struck down in the courts and was most recently denied by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last week.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe renovation is being funded by $257 million in funds appropriated by Congress through last year\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law in July 2025.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2259106655_44cb9d.jpg?w=1024″] Last week, US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), the ranking member of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, detailed allegations that the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts \u201cmismanaged federally appropriated funds,\u201d rushed renovation work, and skirted standard government contracting procedures. The allegations, laid out in a letter on July […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2042651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2042651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2042651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2042651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2042651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}