Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse recently announced that he had received a whistleblower disclosure alleging that the Kennedy Center had improperly rushed its recent renovation efforts in service of the president’s preferred aesthetics, PBS reports.
Since naming himself chair of the Kennedy Center in February 2025, Trump has implemented a number of changes to the institution, including the addition of his own name to the building’s facade, which was ordered to be removed by federal judge Christopher R. Cooper in Washington, D.C. after rejecting an appeal.
In February 2026, Trump announced that the Kennedy Center would close for two years for renovations — a move that was ultimately blocked by Federal Judge Cooper, who also demanded that the Trump administration explain the reason for the tarp still obscuring the Kennedy Center facade, The Guardian reports.
The whistleblowers, who are former project managers at the Kennedy Center, claim that the process for selecting renovation vendors was flawed. They allege that unapproved work began as early as 2025, when center management was ordered to “do whatever it takes” to meet White House deadlines ahead of high-profile events at the venue last December. These events included the December 5 FIFA World Cup draw, where Trump received the organization’s “Peace Prize,” and the Kennedy Center Honors, which he hosted.
“Public funds ought to be spent lawfully, prudently, and in service of the institution, not on the stylistic...
To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. 2 min After a monthlong lull in hostilities, the United States launched fresh airstrikes on I...