President Trump’s affinity for golf is well known. So is his baseball and football fandom.
But bowling?
A $253,000 government contract funded by the Executive Office of the President was awarded for a “lighting project” on the two-lane bowling alley in the basement of the White House’s Eisenhower Executive Office Building, according to federal procurement data.
Mr. Trump has not spoken, at least publicly, about an interest in bowling, and a White House spokesman said that Mr. Trump was not involved in the project. But the president has directed makeovers in and around the White House totaling hundreds of millions in taxpayer expenses, including attempts to beautify the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a paved-over Rose Garden and the sprawling White House ballroom project.
The spokesman said the bowling alley project would cover standard upkeep and fixing broken lights, and added that the alley had hosted nearly 10,000 guests over the last year.
Charles Mann Enterprises, the Washington-based construction management firm contracted for the project, did not respond to requests for comment.
Its founder, Charles Mann, is a three-time Super Bowl champion who played a decade for the Washington Redskins. The firm has received at least $3 million in recent federal contracts for work that has included fixing a roof and an air-conditioning system.
An additional $878,000 contract was awarded to Charles Mann Enterprises for a “studio project” in the same basement as the bowling alley. Details on the projects were not available in federal procurement records.
A rebuild of the aging bowling lanes was proposed in 2014 under President Barack Obama. But the project was swiftly nixed after Republicans criticized any use of public funding for the exclusive lanes.
The two-lane bowling alley was first installed in the White House’s basement in 1947 during the sport’s midcentury boom. The project was paid for by a group of Missourians as a 63rd birthday present to President Harry S. Truman. A White House staff member said at the time he was perplexed by the gift, given that Mr. Truman had not bowled since he was a teenager. President Dwight D. Eisenhower moved the alley in 1955 to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
President Richard M. Nixon, an avid bowler, built a separate one-lane bowling alley underneath the White House in 1973. President Trump renovated that alley in 2019.
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