.png)
6 hours ago
8
“That’s the tactic they use,” said Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island senator, pondering whether Donald Trump might attach his name to the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. “You float stuff and you float stuff and you float stuff until people get inured to what a stupid or outrageous thing it is that has been floated and then you pull the trigger.”
Whitehouse was sitting in his Senate office and speaking to the Guardian at 11am on Thursday 18 December. Two hours later, his words proved prophetic. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, announced on X that the Kennedy Center board had “voted unanimously” to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Center.
By Friday workmen on scissor lifts were adding metal lettering to the building’s facade, before dropping a blue tarpaulin to reveal a sign saying “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For the Performing Arts”, Family members of Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, condemned the move as “beyond wild” and pointed out that an act of Congress is needed to alter its name.
The takeover of the national cultural centre began in February when, in what many critics regard as a case study in institutional capture, Trump ousted members of the Kennedy Center board appointed by former president Joe Biden, took over as chairman and installed Richard Grenell, a longtime ally and former ambassador to Germany, as its president.
In November Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate environment and public works (EPW) committee, launched a formal investigation into allegations of widespread cronyism, financial mismanagement and corruption at what he describes as a “secular temple to the arts”.
Democrats on the committee said they obtained documents that suggest the national cultural centre is being operated as a “slush fund and private club for Trump’s friends and political allies”, resulting in millions of dollars in losses and a significant deviation from its statutory mission.
Whitehouse sent a letter to Grenell demanding detailed documents and records. Grenell issued a fiery response accusing the senator of “partisan attacks and false accusations”. He claimed that neglect by the centre’s previous leadership left it in “financial chaos” and was “quite literally making the building fall apart”.
Whitehouse, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, remains undeterred and determined to press on with his investigation. Speaking in his office on Capitol Hill, he explained: “We began to get information about mischief taking place at the Kennedy Center and we got strong enough signals that we mounted an effort to dig into it and see what seemed actually to be going on.
“It was out of that effort that the report and letter came, which basically suggested that, when the brigands took the ship, their first instinct was to loot it for their own benefit and hire their friends and put people up in fancy rooms at the Watergate [Hotel] and let favoured organisations get free access and it was all part of a Maga party atmosphere.”
A central charge of the investigation is that the Kennedy Center is providing preferential access and financial benefits to organisations connected to the Trump administration and its allies. According to a contract, Grenell granted world football’s governing body, Fifa, free and exclusive use of the entire Kennedy Center campus from 24 November to 12 December for the World Cup draw.
Estimates provided by Whitehouse show this will cost the Center $5,038,444 in losses from direct rental fees, programming rescheduling, labour, food and beverage and other services. Multiple events were cancelled or rescheduled to accommodate Fifa.
Grenell rejected the accusation in his letter, stating: “Fifa has given us several million dollars, in addition to paying all of the expenses for this event in lieu of a rental fee. Your focus on simple rental fees is no way to run an institution as diverse as the Kennedy Center. A simple rental fee would not have been enough to cover the magnitude of the event.”
But Whitehouse argues this defence is unsubstantiated by any documentation. Fifa has been “brown-nosing Trump relentlessly and giving him comical peace trophies to butter him up and at the same time getting free access to the Kennedy Center”, the senator observed.
Roma Daravi, vice-president of public relations for the Kennedy Center, said in a statement on Wednesday: “Fifa is giving the Kennedy Center multimillions of dollars – much more than what a rental’s revenue would have been – plus they are covering all expenses.”
Daravi accused Whitehouse of purposely sharing “misleading information” with US newspapers the New York Times and Washington Post, adding: “The press and the Senator should be ashamed of the lies they print and reprint – we want a cultural center for ALL Americans but they push lies to sow division amongst Americans for their selfish moment in a headline.”
Contracts reveal steep rental discounts were provided to conservative groups: NewsNation received a $19,820 discount for a town hall event; the American Conservative Union Foundation received a $21,982.60 discount for a CPAC gathering entitled The Christian Persecution Summit. The contract file explicitly notes “waived costs from OOP” (the Office of the President).
Whitehouse added: “If they weren’t paying the proper ordinary Kennedy Center rates, they’re being given a benefit and those benefits seem only to be going towards groups that are affiliated with Trump and Maga. It’s basically a direct way to use this public facility to put money into the pockets of groups that are allied.”
The investigation also uncovered lucrative contracts awarded to individuals with personal or political ties to Grenell and his allies.
On 14 April the centre entered into a $15,000-per-month contract with a former colleague of Grenell’s from his time as ambassador to Germany. The letter states the contract is “devoid of any detail”, and there is no evidence of substantive speeches that would justify the payments.
In his letter to Whitehouse, Grenell defended the hiring, describing his former colleague as an “accomplished editor, researcher and writer” whose work on a special exhibit was “100%” covered by a donor who gave $10m to the Center.
In May the centre awarded a $10,833.33-per-month contract to Jeff Halperin, the husband of staunch Trump ally Kari Lake, for “social media capture/editing” services. In his response, Grenell praised Halperin for his “incredible multimedia expertise”.
Documents detail significant expenditures on luxury hospitality and entertainment for staff and associates, which the letter describes as unrelated to official fundraising or development purposes.
Between 21 April and 16 July, Grenell’s team charged the Center $27,185 for rooms at the luxury Watergate Hotel. These charges, which included multi-night stays, missed reservation fees and valet parking, are described as “unprecedented”.
Whitehouse contrasted this with previous administrations, where such hospitality was typically for performers or honourees, not “letting some guy who you know who you’re hiring be put up at the Watergate”.
Between 17 April and 2 July, $10,773.19 was charged for private lunches, dinners and alcohol. Receipts show charges for “Champagne Service,” multi-bottle wine orders including rosé, and charcuterie. Senior staff members Nick Meade and Rick Loughery, who also hold leadership roles in political organisations founded or led by Grenell, appeared on several invoices in this spending.
The investigation notes reports that the Kennedy Center is operating over budget amid falling ticket sales. Whitehouse suggested the decline is due to a “bad signal to Washington” from the new leadership, a change in programming that “appeals to a much narrower market of Maga enthusiasts” and major acts cancelling performances. He likened the Trump administration’s takeover to “the Vandals in Rome”.
Grenell insisted that the center’s previous leaders were responsible for the centre’s financial problems and that his team is fixing them. Whitehouse countered that there is “very little reason to believe that version of events is supported by facts” and Grenell’s team has “not produced documentary support for any of it”.
The Senate EPW committee investigation is continuing. “We’re going to continue to dig away until we’re sure that we understand the depths of the problem,” Whitehouse said. “But it ought to be pretty plain to people that when a new administration comes to Washington, it is not the ordinary and appropriate thing to start filling your own pockets, your friends’ pockets, your political allies’ pockets with public goods.”
The Kennedy Center is just the tip of the iceberg in a second Trump term that is taking the culture wars literally. He has unveiled plans to build a triumphal arch in Washington and a garden of statues of US “heroes” to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the declaration of independence. Last week it was reported that the administration is threatening to withhold federal funds from Smithsonian Institution museums if they fail to submit extensive documentation for content review.
Whitehouse commented: “It’s the second term strategy of let Trump be Trump without guardrails and that takes him into innumerable places where presidents heretofore did not go. This was just an element of it. Trump sees a crowd. He sees an event. He wants to be in the middle of it so you can see the Kennedy Center as a venue for him to put himself in front of people and seek accolades and admiration would be fairly irresistible.
“It’s a little bit different with the Smithsonian, where that is a narrative enforcement battle to try to restore a rather selective view of American history that aligns with a Republican and Maga narrative. I don’t think you can underestimate the importance of narrative enhancement to the Maga movement. They will lie their way through very obvious facts to protect a narrative.”
