Kennedy Center Violated Government Contracting Norms Under Trump, Whistleblowers Say
11July 13, 2026
Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouseannouncedon Saturday that he had received a letter from a group of whistleblowers alleging that theJohn F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Artshad improperly rushed its recent renovation efforts in service of the president’s aesthetic impulses.
“The Center’s subservience to the President’s desires and its corner-cutting contracting practices have resulted in steel columns that are rusting through fresh paint, a reflecting pool that may have to be torn out and rebuilt, and a brand-new bathroom floor torn out over an offending tile color,” Whitehouse said. “This is waste, and it treats a national memorial to President Kennedy as if it were a private renovation project.”
The whistleblowers, who are former project managers at the Kennedy Center, alleged in their communications with Whitehouse that there was a questionable process by which vendors for the renovations were chosen. Per the New York Times, a Small Business Administration program allowed a furniture dealership, Washington Office Interiors to be awarded a $4.4 million sole-course contract for painting the Center’s gold columns white, the whistleblowers said.
Washington Office Interiors hired the company Cypress Painting Systems as its subcontractor in order to get the column painting job done, but lawyers for the whistleblowers noted that Cypress Painting Systems would not have qualified for the Small Business Administration contract and that the painting work began on the columns before any contract had been officially awarded.
The Kennedy Center said in a statement that its contractual arrangement with regard to the columns had been made in full cooperation with Small Business Administration guidelines.
The Kennedy Center has been a major point of contention under Trump. In February, Trump announced that the center would close for two years to undergo extensive renovations.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the temporary closure in May and also ordered the Trump administration to remove the president’s name from the Kennedy Center’s exterior which had been added in December of 2025.
A month after this order, US district judge Christopher Cooper demanded that the Trump administration explain the reason for the tarp still obscuring the Kennedy Center, despite the fact that Trump’s name had been removed earlier in June.