Trump Kennedy Center will be ‘great living memorial’ to Kennedy again, former chairman Rubenstein says

Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein said Wednesday that the Trump Kennedy Center will be a “great living memorial” again for the late US President John F. Kennedy after planned refurbishments, but pushed back on US President Donald Trump’s recent claim that the arts venue was dilapidated.

“I didn’t think it was in bad shape myself ... I didn’t see anything that was really that terrible,” Rubenstein said at Semafor World Economy in Washington, DC. “Any building that’s 70 years old is going to have some issues. But on the whole … I didn’t think that the building was falling apart and I think people enjoyed it.”

Rubenstein was chairman of the previously named Kennedy Center in Washington for 15 years before Trump removed him from the position last year. In December, the venue was renamed the Trump Kennedy Center.

Earlier this year, Trump said the building was in “bad condition, both financially and structurally.” And in March, the board named by Trump voted to close the arts center for a two-year renovation.

Separately, Rubenstein told Semafor World Economy that immigrants now believe more in the American dream than less-affluent, native-born Americans.

“People who are born in the lower socioeconomic classes in this country are increasingly not believing in the American dream,” he said. “They feel there’s no chance for them to rise up, unfortunately. Now, obviously, that’s not a good situation because you want people to feel they can rise up in society.”