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 “mismanaged federally appropriated funds,” rushed renovation work, and skirted standard government contracting procedures.
The 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’s letter, came from firsthand accounts of multiple former project managers at the Kennedy Center, annd were supported with documents and photographs.
According to the disclosure, beginning in February 2025, after President Trump reconstituted the Center’s 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’s desire to host events at the Center in December 2025, including the ceremony at which President Trump received the so-called “FIFA World Peace Prize.” 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.
Whitehouse also alleges that an $8 million no-bid flooring contract was awarded to South Carolina’s Low Country Flooring, which Whitehouse contends have no concern-hall experience; that the Center “tore out” a newly renovated bathroom after Trump expressed displeasure with the color; that Trump instructed staffers to ignore federal contracting rules and “do whatever it takes” to ensure he could host the new FIFA “Peace Prize” ceremony at the Center last December, and that the Center rewrote its contracting rules after awarding the “no-bid” contracts to justify the decisions.
In a statement to the New York Times, the Kennedy Center denied the allegations, saying, “We remain fully committed to transparency and to delivering the critical improvements that will preserve this institution for generations to come.” White House spokesperson Liz Huston responded to the allegations by saying that “Trump did what Democrats wouldn’t.” In a statement to the Times, she said, “After 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.”
Both the White House and the Center did confirm the bathroom re-renovation, calling it standard design changed that caused “zero unnecessary burden on the taxpayer.” 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.
Per the letter, Whitehouse called for the Center to provide documentation and responses to 18 points of inquiry to aid in the investigation.
The renovation of the Kennedy Center, like many of the projects through which Trump Administration is seeking to remake the nation’s capital, has been mired in controversy. In December the administration tried to add Trump’s 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.
The renovation is being funded by $257 million in funds appropriated by Congress through last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law in July 2025.
