Trump mixes Iran war talk with Kennedy Center overhaul at board meeting

By Bo Erickson

WASHINGTON, March 16 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump gathered his hand-picked board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Monday for a meeting that veered between the war with Iran and his plans to overhaul the Washington cultural landmark.

Trump acknowledged that the White House meeting, attended by top government officials and wealthy business leaders, was largely a formality to approve his renovation plans for the center. But the event also highlighted how the president is juggling an overseas conflict now in its third week with an ambitious portfolio of construction projects around the capital.

“What I do best in life is build,” Trump said during the hour-long public portion of the meeting, at which he dismissed Iran as a “paper tiger” and railed against the “disaster” of the Washington performing arts center.

By the end, he was mixing military and artistic expressions. 

“It takes two to tango,” Trump said when asked why a key shipping lane near Iran had not been reopened if U.S. forces had cleared Iranian mine-laying ships.

DEFENSE OF RENOVATION PLANS

Trump, a property developer, defended his plans to close the Kennedy Center for two years of renovation, saying it was necessary to complete the overhaul quickly. 

“When you do marbles, you can’t have people walking over the marble every night, as it’s drying and setting, and going to a play,” he said.

The extent of the changes, set to begin after the July 4 Independence Day, remains unclear. Trump on Monday criticized the center’s steel beams out front and the theaters inside, and he previously has said the carpet, walls, chandeliers, stages and ventilation will be updated.

After taking little interest in the center Congress dedicated as a living memorial to Kennedy after his assassination in 1963, Trump launched a revamp of it shortly after returning to power. His board last December approved changing the name of the building to the Trump-Kennedy Center.

Many groups and artists backed out of performances, citing the Republican’s takeover, and the National Symphony Orchestra’s executive director recently stepped down from her role.

Some Democrats who hold non-voting positions on the board, including U.S. Representative Joyce Beatty, have challenged the president’s plans. A federal judge last week ordered the administration to allow the congresswoman to attend Monday’s meeting and be given access to the renovation plans.

The board unanimously approved the plans on Monday, the center said in a statement.

Afterward, Beatty said there was no roll call vote but that she was able to address the president in the meeting.

“I’m not against renovations if they need to be done,” Beatty said to reporters. “I am totally against the process, it being unlawful, them not checking with the Congress.”

Her lawyers promised to move “expeditiously” to try to block the temporary closing.

EAST ROOM MEETING

Trump heaped praise on other board members in attendance, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, as well as some of America’s richest couples, such as hotel magnates Steve and Andrea Wynn, New England Patriots football owners Bob Kraft and Dana Kraft, and former Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter and his wife, Laura.

Trump offered few new details about the scope of the renovations, as he also oversees construction of a White House ballroom and a commemorative arch for America’s 250th anniversary.

At one point in the meeting, he shifted from discussing the “bones” of the building to urging Johnson to tell a story about a Florida Republican congressman’s terminal diagnosis.

He also commiserated with Wynn about how gold paint on buildings does not look real. “You either gold leaf it, or use real gold bullion, or you use a different color,” Trump said. 

On Friday, Trump shared renderings of the center’s exterior that showed a look similar to the current white marble facade and white columns ringing the building that were recently painted over.

The president has not released interior design renderings, but in December he suggested adding white marble arm rests to the center’s seating. 

“The good thing about the Kennedy Center,” Trump said on Monday, “is the acoustics are good.”

(Reporting by Bo Erickson; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Alistair Bell)