Trump Quizzed On His Plans to Shutter the Kennedy Center for 2 Years — Says ‘I’m Not Ripping it Out’

President Donald Trump teased some details Monday on his plans for The Kennedy Center renovations that he says will require him to shutter the performing arts center for two years beginning this summer.

A reporter at Monday’s Oval Office event on rare earth minerals asked Trump if he planned to tear the center down, and how much he projected the project will cost.

“Probably around $200 million,” Trump said about the cost. “And, you know, it’s funny — in real estate and building, I’ve done so much of it and done so well with it — you want to sit with something for a little while before you decide on what you want to do. We sat with it. We ran it. It’s in very bad shape. It’s run down. It’s dilapidated. Sort of dangerous. Things fall out. Fall out of ceilings. You’ve seen it.”

“You know, we’re fully-financed,” Trump said without giving a clue as to how he planned to pay for the upgrades.

“I’m not ripping it out,” Trump continued. “I’ll be using the steel. So we’re using the structure. We’re use some of the marble, some of the marble comes down. But when it’s open, it’ll be brand-new and really beautiful. It will be at the highest level.”

Trump added, “We’ll close it on July 4th in order to do something great for America, and then, we’re going to build it, with great contractors, we’ll build it and do it right. We’re using the highest-grade marbles, highest-grade everything. It’ll be brand-new. Tremendous — Carrier is putting in the air conditioning. I guess they’re a bidder, but they’re probably going to get it. Carrier. We’ll have all brand-new air conditioning and heating. The steel will all be checked out because it will be fully exposed.”

“It’s been up for a long time,” Trump said of the structure built beginning in 1964 as a “living memorial” to slain President John F. Kennedy. Trump recently added his own name to the center, calling it “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

“But as anybody knows, it was in very bad shape. It wasn’t kept well before I got there. So we’re going to make it — I think there won’t be anything like it in the country.”

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

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