Mar 16, 2026
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By Alex Gangitano, Sophia Cai and Ben Johansen
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Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government, your guide to Donald Trump’s unprecedented overhaul of the federal government — the key decisions, the critical characters and the power dynamics that are upending Washington and beyond.
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President DONALD TRUMP this morning convened his Kennedy Center board for a public chat about marble, acoustics and his long-held thoughts on gold paint.
During the wide-ranging meeting, where he leaned on his bona fides as a builder, Trump insisted that closing the building for two years was necessary because renovations can be done faster and produce higher-quality work with operations down. Trump’s remaking of the Kennedy Center has drawn criticism from Democrats and the Kennedy family and led to major donors cutting back, artists withdrawing from the board and several performers backing out of shows.
“We determined that the fastest way to bring the Trump-Kennedy Center to the highest level of success, beauty and grandeur is to cease the entertainment operations for a two-year period of time as we complete high quality, really high quality, construction,” Trump said.
“The right way to do it is just close it and fix it and open it.”
Trump, an opera fan, found some positives to share about the building— acoustics and its bones — while he took issue with the air conditioning, programming, marble, seating and the gold paint that he said looks cheap and fake.
“It has one thing that’s very good. It has great sound,” said Trump, but he largely chalked that up to “luck.” “The good thing about the Kennedy Center is the acoustics are good and they’ll only be enhanced.”
Two save the dates also went out to the board members, including a Fourth of July party before construction starts and a “grand reopening” event.
He quipped with billionaire friends around the table, including New England Patriots owner ROBERT KRAFT, real estate developer STEVE WYNN, former Marvel Entertainment CEO ISAAC “IKE” PERLMUTTER and Cuban sugar and real estate baron JOSÉ “PEPE” FANJUL, about his construction background. And, he teased those big wigs for tagging along to the meeting, considering that it’s his friends’ wives who actually sit on the Kennedy Center board. DANA KRAFT, ANDREA WYNN, LAURA PERLMUTTER and EMILIA MAY FANJUL are members appointed by Trump.
“What’s with these husbands?” Trump said. “My wife is going to have to speak to me, this is pretty good. The biggest guys in the country travel with their wives to come to a meeting. But it has something to do with the White House… you don’t want to see me, you want to see the White House because it’s a special building.”
The Trump takeover of the Kennedy Center has been “dramatic and quick” so far, in terms of programming and funding, he said, arguing that it wouldn’t have stayed alive without him. The most clear indication of his takeover was the president repeatedly referring to it as the Trump-Kennedy Center, unless he was talking about how it ran before his return to Washington.
He announced the two-year project in February, saying the renovation won’t be a full tear-down, and last week announced RICHARD GRENELL would step down from his role as the interim head of the Kennedy Center and be replaced by MATT FLOCA, vice president of facilities for the performing arts center.
He thanked Grenell, quipping that some artists “took a pounding from Ric” during his Kennedy Center tenure. And, while he said he was looking for Grenell’s “next venture,” Trump insisted he didn’t fire him.
The board later voted unanimously to approve the two-year closure.
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POTUS PUZZLER
Which president is celebrating his 275th birthday today?
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The Oval
GET WELL SOON: White House chief of staff SUSIE WILES has early stage breast cancer, Trump announced today, our CHEYENNE HASLETT reports. Wiles, 68, a longstanding fixture of Trump’s orbit, has been his chief of staff since day one of his second term. Trump first announced her diagnosis in a Truth Social post. calling her prognosis “excellent” and noting she would continue working as his chief of staff while she undergoes treatment.
Wiles later said she was diagnosed last week and is grateful to have a team of doctors that detected the cancer early. She said she felt encouraged by her prognosis and thanked the president for his “support and encouragement.” Wiles informed the president about her diagnosis soon after she found out, said one person close to the White House, granted anonymity to describe the conversation.
Agenda Setting
GERMANY TO TRUMP: SORRY. Germany’s government rejected Trump’s demand that NATO allies help secure the Strait of Hormuz, declaring that the alliance had no place in the war, our NETTE NÖSTLINGER reports from Berlin. “This war has nothing to do with NATO. It’s not NATO’s war,” STEFAN KORNELIUS, a spokesperson for German Chancellor FRIEDRICH MERZ, told reporters in Berlin today. “NATO is a defensive alliance, an alliance for the defense of its territory,” he added. Trump had warned NATO allies on Sunday they face a “very bad future” if they refuse to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, pressing Europe to support an American effort to reopen the key maritime corridor.
THE CALENDAR IS FLUID: Trump’s closely-watched meeting with Chinese President XI JINPING may be delayed amid the war in the Middle East, members of the administration said today, our CHEYANNE M. DANIELS reports. In an interview with the Financial Times published Sunday, Trump said, “we may delay” a meeting scheduled with Xi later this month. White House press secretary KAROLINE LEAVITT described Trump’s planned meeting as “a leader-to-leader conversation,” but also told reporters that “the dates may be moved.”
He later said that he had suggested delaying his planned trip for “a month or so” due to the ongoing war in Iran. “Because of the war, I want to be here. I have to be here, I feel,” Trump said. He insisted that there are “no tricks to it either. … It’s very simple, got a war going on.”
An American president has not gone to China since Trump went early in his first term.Trump was expected to visit China later this month as the two countries carry on economic and trade talks.
TRUMP THE OVERSHARER: Trump blasted today that Rep. NEAL DUNN (R-Fla.) potentially had just months to live before a recent surgery before the president stepped in to help, Cheyanne also reports. “It was very serious and he had a pretty grim diagnosis,” Speaker MIKE JOHNSON said at Trump’s urging. “I mentioned it to the president and I said, ‘Congressman Dunn is a real champion and patriot because he’s still coming to work, and if others got this diagnosis they would be apt to go home and retire.’” Johnson added that he thought Dunn had received a terminal diagnosis – before Trump interrupted, “He would be dead by June.” After a slight pause, Johnson replied, “Okay – that wasn’t public, but okay. It was grim, that’s what I was going to say.” Johnson said Dunn now “has a new lease on life.”
In the Courts
NOT COURTING THE COURT: Trump’s Sunday night social media outburst took on virtually all of problems plaguing his presidency right now, but it was perhaps most notable for how he cast the Supreme Court — one that has staved off the destruction of his agenda and even his own criminal prosecution — as “a weaponized, and unjust Political Organization,” our KYLE CHENEY reports. “This completely inept and embarrassing Court was not what the Supreme Court of the United States was set up by our wonderful Founders to be,” the president blared on Truth Social. “They are hurting our Country, and will continue to do so.”
Until the Feb. 20 tariff ruling, the Trump administration had been touting its winning streak at the Supreme Court. The justices have salvaged Trump’s broadest efforts to end legal protections for hundreds of thousands of noncitizens in the United States, allowed him to assert unprecedented control of once-independent agencies and unilaterally slash congressionally authorized spending.
TRACKING THE NO BILLS: The once-rare phenomenon of a grand jury refusing prosecutors’ bid to secure an indictment is now so common in Washington that a prominent judge is temporarily changing court rules, our JOSH GERSTEIN writes in.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge JAMES BOASBERG decreed earlier this month that prosecutors must make a “confidential” report to the court every time a grand jury turns down a proposed indictment. National federal court rules only require such a report when a criminal case has already been opened via preliminary charges.
In recent months, prosecutors have encountered recalcitrant grand juries in a series of high-profile investigations. Last month, grand jurors rejected an indictment of six Democratic lawmakers who made a video urging military personnel to ignore unlawful orders. During a surge of federal law enforcement in Washington last year, grand juries also refused felony charges in a series of alleged assaults on federal officers, including against a man caught on video throwing a Subway sandwich at an immigration agent.
Boasberg wrote that the new requirement, which will be in place for four months, will further “consistency and transparency.” He indicated he sought and received the views of the Justice Department before issuing the order, but did not disclose whether the government opposed the new procedure.
Spokespeople for U.S. Attorney JEANINE PIRRO, who blasted Boasberg Friday for blocking a grand jury subpoena aimed at Federal Reserve chief JEROME POWELL, did not reply to a request for comment.
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What We’re Reading
Trump warns NATO (again) of ‘very bad future’ if allies don’t secure Strait of Hormuz (POLITICO Europe’s Milena Wälde)
Trump sold young voters on his vision. Many are having buyer’s remorse. (Washington Post’s Dan Merica and Cat Zakrzewski)
A message from Better Medicare Alliance:
A message from Better Medicare Alliance:
Why stability in Medicare Advantage matters: Medicare Advantage now covers more than half of all Medicare-eligible Americans, offering coordinated care, lower costs, and benefits seniors value. But the program relies on adequate funding. When payment rates fail to reflect real-world medical costs and utilization, the consequences don’t fall on insurers — they fall on seniors.
POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER
Former President JAMES MADISON was born March 16, 1751.
A CALL OUT! Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents, with a citation or sourcing, and we may feature it!
CORRECTION: Friday’s newsletter mistakenly identified one of the people the Heritage Foundation is seeking records for from Trump’s first term. He is former National Security Council staffer Alexander Vindman, not his brother, Rep. Eugene Vindman.
Edited by Ester Wells, Dan Goldberg, Jennifer Haberkorn, Kathryn A. Wolfe and Isabel Dobrin.
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