The Kennedy Center's leadership worked closely with Donald Trump's administration to rush out no-bid contracts for construction projects at the performing arts venue in service of the president's personal tastes, according to a Democratic senator investigating the efforts.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse says he is expanding a probe into the Trump-led renovations after several whistleblower reports raised "serious questions" about the center's leadership and the board's financial management.
The whistleblower complaints allege corner-cutting projects that have already rusted over, a new bathroom floor that was ripped out because the president didn't like the color, multi-million dollar no-bid contracts, and management that defied contracting rules while telling officials "we'll deal with the lawsuits later."
"Taken together, 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 in a letter to Kennedy Center executive director Matt Floca on Saturday.
Rather than focus on the building's "actual needs," the center rushed renovations "driven by the president's aesthetic whims," according to Whitehouse. "This is waste, and it treats a national memorial to President Kennedy as if it were a private renovation project."
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