Washington — Kennedy Center president Ric Grenell and Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island are clashing over the center's spending and operations records, after Trump allies were appointed to key roles at the Kennedy Center earlier this year, and President Trump was elected chairman of the board.

In a letter to Grenell, Whitehouse said that under Grenell's stewardship, "The Center is being looted to the tune of millions of dollars in foregone revenue, cancelled programming, unpaid use of its facilities, and wasteful spending on luxury restaurants and hotels." He called it "an unprecedented pattern of self-dealing, favoritism, and waste."

Grenell posted a long letter on X that responded to Whitehouse's accusations, point by point: ". @SenWhitehouse just stepped in it," G

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