So I’m sitting at my kitchen table last night, going through the school supply list for fall (have you SEEN what glue sticks cost now?), and I stumble across this little gem: Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center renovation just ballooned to $560 million.
Five hundred and sixty. Million. Dollars.
Congress already approved $257 million for this. That wasn’t enough. The new plan, laid out in 180 pages of internal documents that Axios got their hands on, more than doubles that to $560 million. For a building. A performing arts building. In a country where I can’t even take my kids to a doctor without selling a kidney.
Let me walk you through what that half-billion-plus buys. $24.7 million to upgrade the Concert Hall. $48 million to restore six theaters. New marble flooring in the Grand Foyer. “Less sheer” draperies. New furniture throughout. A coffee shop. And my personal favorite: a VIP restroom, because apparently the people attending galas at the Kennedy Center have been suffering the indignity of using the same bathrooms as the rest of us peasants.
Shealeah Craighead (Public domain) via Wikimedia CommonsI have four kids sharing one bathroom. I’m sorry if that lacks the appropriate level of luxury for the donor class.
The consulting group, Delta Consulting out of Virginia, put together two options for the board, which Trump chairs, by the way, because of course he does. Option one: four years of partial closure, $560 million. Option two: shut the whole building down for two years, kick the National Symphony Orchestra out to “regional partner venues,” move the Kennedy Center Honors somewhere else, and, I’m quoting here, “enable staff reduction and a reset of expenses.”
Reset of expenses. That’s consultant-speak for firing people. But hey, at least the VIPs get their own bathroom.
Here’s what gets me. The documents themselves admit “the state of disrepair is significant and escalating.” So this building has been falling apart, and nobody did anything about it until a man who made his name gold-plating everything in sight decided to take it over and turn it into his personal project. The same man who, separately, is building a ballroom at the White House that started at $200 million and, by his own words in December, is now at $400 million. You notice a pattern? The number only goes one direction.
Sdkb (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia CommonsA federal judge already halted the closure back in May and asked for detailed plans. These documents are going straight to that judge’s desk. Good. Someone needs to ask what exactly we’re getting for more than double the original budget, because I guarantee you nobody in my group chat can name a single thing in this renovation that benefits a single regular family.
The $257 million Congress approved covers 90% of even the cheaper option. Consultants suggest fundraising another $30 million. So the gap between what we already authorized and what they now want is roughly $300 million. That’s real money. That’s the kind of money that funds school lunches, fixes bridges, keeps a community health center open. But sure, let’s get the Grand Foyer some less sheer draperies.
I did my own research on this one. The numbers are right there in the documents. The question isn’t whether the Kennedy Center needs work. It does. The question is who’s watching the register while the guy who owns the store rings up his own purchases.
Because I’ll tell you what I tell my kids: nobody gives you a bigger allowance because you said please. You show me the receipt.