Yet another leak in the Trump boat has publicly exposed just how much Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center fiasco is costing.
Axios has recently obtained a whopping 180-plus pages of internal blueprints that reveal the swelling price tag of President Trump’s renovation and remaking of the world-renowned performing arts venue. Congress originally approved $257 million for the project, yet internal documents reveal that costs are on track to balloon to more than double, clocking in around $560 million so far.
Delta Consulting Group put together a two-slide construction assessment that they presented to the board of trustees, chaired by Trump himself. According to their assessment, the iconic venue’s “state of disrepair is significant and escalating,” resulting in the group presenting the board with two different options for repair.
The first is a four-year, phased renovation plan that would allow the National Symphony Orchestra to continue using the venue amid repairs. This avenue would drive the cost to the aforementioned $560 million. The other option involved completely shuttering the venue’s main building for two years, forcing the orchestra “offsite through regional partner venues, touring and digital broadcasts” and relocating traditional events such as the Kennedy Center Honors and Mark Twain Prize. Under both proposed plans, the venue’s indoor-outdoor REACH space, which serves as a living memorial to former President John F. Kennedy, would remain open.
Congress’s presently approved $257 million appropriation would cover approximately 90% of either proposal, but construction consultants are pressing for an additional $30 million to bridge expected funding gaps.
Physical updates to the venue are set to include a $24.7 million renoavation for the 2,465-seat Concert Hall, where a $2 million pipe organ calls home, a “Front of the House Renewal” proposed by JLL that would give the Grand Foyer a massive makeover, its first since the 1990s, and several smaller, cosmetic upgrades, such as “new furniture throughout,” “less sheer” draperies, and “new featured marble flooring.”
$48 million is earmarked for restorations across the Opera House, Eisenhower Theater, Family Theater, Terrace Theater, and Theater Lab, as well as new lighting in the lobby, a new coffee shop, and a newly renovated VIP reception room with private restrooms.
But it’s not just the venue’s appearance that Trump is looking to overhaul. He’s set his sights on the Kennedy Center’s cultural identity as well, with former Melania modeling agent-turned-presidential envoy Paolo Zampolli proposing Valentino fashion shows, a luxury yacht marina, high-end eateries, and a collab to launch American arts into space—because these weirdos STAY obsessed with space for some reason.
The Kennedy Center has found itself on a steady path of struggle and decline after Trump sunk his claws into the place, branding the venue as too “woke,” installing himself as board chair, replacing all trustees with MAGA loyalists, and slapping his own name everywhere it would fit.
Since then, audiences and performers alike have avoided the place like the plague.
All final renovation plans still require sign-off from a federal judge who recently paused all attempts to close down the Kennedy Center for their repair plans and demanded detailed, formal documentation on potential impacts on the iconic institution.