Whistleblowers Expose Rusting Columns, No-Bid Contracts, and “Deal With the Lawsuits Later” Culture at Trump’s Kennedy Center
Documents handed to Congress allege the administration rushed shoddy renovation work to meet the president’s personal deadlines — and taxpayers will foot the bill twice
Whistleblowers have handed Congress a trove of documents alleging that the Trump administration’s renovation of the Kennedy Center was rushed, mismanaged, and riddled with contracting violations, all to meet deadlines driven by President Donald Trump’s personal desire to star in televised events at the venue.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board, announced that he had received the whistleblower disclosure from the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit that represents federal whistleblowers. The 82-page submission, made under federal whistleblower protection law, accuses the center’s Trump-installed leadership of “gross mismanagement and gross waste of public funds.”
The Washington Post reported Monday that Whitehouse has now expanded his inquiry, seeking documents directly from the contracting firms that worked on the project.
The senator launched his original investigation in November into what he described as cronyism and self-dealing at the center.
“We’ll deal with the lawsuits later”
According to the whistleblower letter, Kennedy Center management repeatedly told staff to do “whatever it takes” to complete renovations before a series of high-profile December events, including a televised ceremony where Trump accepted a newly created FIFA “peace prize.” When staff raised concerns, management’s reported response was blunt: “We’ll deal with the lawsuits later.”
In a July 9 letter to Kennedy Center Executive Director Matt Floca, Whitehouse wrote that “longstanding federal contracting controls were set aside, no-bid contractors were awarded, and superficial cosmetic work was performed that staff warned would have to be redone.”
The rush, the whistleblowers allege, produced exactly the results staff predicted.
Rusting columns and a $1.5 million mistake
Trump reportedly objected to the gold-colored columns outside the theater complex , designed to evoke the strings of a musical instrument — and wanted them painted white to match the building’s marble. According to the whistleblowers, the contractor hired for the job, Cypress Painting Systems, used a different primer than specified without submitting a change order.
The steel columns are now rusting through the fresh white paint. The damage is estimated at roughly $1.5 million.
The center’s reflecting pool fared no better. After a hasty cosmetic revamp, the pool is now unevenly painted and rusting, and may need to be torn out and rebuilt entirely. The episode echoes the administration’s troubled renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which has drawn criticism for algae blooms and peeling paint.
An $8 million contract with no track record
Among the most striking allegations: the administration awarded a roughly $8 million no-bid contract to replace the concert hall’s stage flooring to a South Carolina firm that showed no evidence it had ever installed concert hall stage flooring.
The Kennedy Center called that characterization “fundamentally misleading,” and a spokesperson, Roma Daravi, said the institution “makes every decision guided by responsible stewardship and an unwavering commitment to its patrons and the nation it proudly serves.”
The whistleblowers also allege the center wasted money tearing out a brand-new bathroom, because Trump didn’t like the color.
A pattern, not an accident
Congress approved $257 million last year for repairs and restoration at the Kennedy Center. The whistleblower documents suggest much of the rushed work will require “extensive remediation,” meaning taxpayers will pay again to fix what they already paid to build.
Notably, the disclosure does not allege that the no-bid contractors have personal ties to Trump or his family. The problem, as the whistleblowers describe it, is structural: a national cultural institution bent to one man’s aesthetic whims and event calendar, with federal contracting law treated as an obstacle rather than a requirement.
Trump seized control of the Kennedy Center shortly after his 2025 inauguration, firing most of its board, replacing the members with loyalists, and installing himself as chairman. The renovation fiasco is what happened next.
Whitehouse has demanded records and answers from the center by July 23. But with the board stacked with Trump allies and the White House already dismissing the allegations as partisan, the more likely outcome is the one that has defined this administration: the work gets botched, the taxpayers pay twice, and no one answers for any of it.
Democratic Reporter is funded by readers like you — no corporate owners, no billionaires. If you value independent political journalism, subscribe and share this piece.