Whistleblowers flagged shady deals and questionable work performed by Trump administration contractors during an investigation into the administration’s renovation of the Kennedy Center, according to a new report.
The Washington Post reported on Monday that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who sits on the Kennedy Center’s board, had expanded his inquiry into President Donald Trump’s renovation project. Whitehouse is seeking documents from contracting firms that have worked on the project after whistleblowers came forward with details about what has been going on behind the scenes, according to the report.
“Whitehouse’s allegations build on an investigation he launched in November into what he called cronyism and self-dealing at the center under its previous president,” the Post reported. “And they land amid a broader pattern of Trump’s second term: oversight bodies stacked with allies, presidential norms bent or broken, and lawsuits challenging speedy construction in Trump’s race to put his physical stamp — and sometimes his name — on the nation’s capital. In the case of the Kennedy Center, the rush to appease Trump led to unnecessary work and substandard craftsmanship requiring more money to repair, Whitehouse alleged.”
For instance, whistleblowers said that the steel columns at the Kennedy Center rusted after a contractor, Cypress Painting Systems, used a different primer without submitting a change order. The move cost about $1.5 million in damages, according to the report.
The Trump administration also hired a contractor to replace the Kennedy Center’s floors for roughly $8 million. However, the contractor that the administration hired showed “no evidence it had ever installed concert hall stage flooring,” according to the report.
The Kennedy Center described the characterization of the flooring contractor as “fundamentally misleading,” the report added.
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