The Republican president said the work would cost about $200 million, including installation of the “highest-grade marble, the highest-grade everything.”
President Donald Trump said Monday that he won’t tear down the Kennedy Center but said it needs to be closed for about two years for work that cannot be done with patrons coming and going for shows and other performances.
Trump’s comments, though, suggested that the interior of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will be gutted as part of the process.
“I’m not ripping it down,” the Republican president told reporters following an unrelated announcement in the Oval Office. “I’ll be using the steel. So we’re using the structure.”
Such a project would mark Trump’s latest effort to put his stamp on a cultural institution that Congress designated as a living memorial to President Kennedy, a Democrat, in addition to attempting to leave his mark on Washington through other projects, the most prominent of which is adding a ballroom to the White House.
Trump announced Sunday on social media that he intends to close the performing arts venue on July 4 for about two years, subject to approval by a board led by many of his allies.
