Fashion? Rockets? Yachts? A Trump Ally Has Ideas for the Kennedy Center

The businessman Paolo Zampolli has counted Donald J. Trump as a friend for decades. In the 1990s, when Mr. Zampolli ran a modeling agency, he played matchmaker for Mr. Trump, introducing him at a party to his future wife, Melania.

Now Mr. Zampolli, 55, is helping Mr. Trump in another way: reshaping the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.

Mr. Zampolli has served on the center’s board since Mr. Trump appointed him toward the end of his first term. But things have changed rapidly since Mr. Trump began his second term with the stunning takeover of the historically bipartisan institution, firing all of the Biden appointees on its board and having himself elected chairman.

Exactly what it all means is still coming into focus. A number of artists have canceled appearances there, and the musical “Hamilton” scrapped a planned tour there next year. Richard Grenell, whom Mr. Trump named as its new president, recently said that the center planned “a big, huge celebration of the birth of Christ at Christmas.”

Mr. Zampolli, who shares Mr. Trump’s attention-grabbing instincts, has his own ideas. He wants the center to launch art into space with the help of Elon Musk, host Valentino fashion shows and to open a marina on the Potomac and a Cipriani restaurant.

“We need to make the Kennedy Center a destination,” Mr. Zampolli, a special envoy for Mr. Trump who once served as a United Nations ambassador of Dominica, said in a recent interview. “It has the hugest potential ever.”

The conversation has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

You’ve argued that the Kennedy Center is due for an overhaul.

When you go to Saks Fifth Avenue, they try to maximize every inch, every square foot of the space. It has to be a bankable business, and so do we.

The goal of the center is to bring more money and people in. But the Kennedy Center is not really a destination. When people say, “Hey, where are we going to tonight?,” you don’t think about the Kennedy Center. All the ideas that I came up with are about making it a destination point.

What are your ideas?

We can have a fashion show with Valentino, the top designer in the world, in honor of Jacqueline Kennedy. That would be very glamorous. You can seat a couple thousand people for a gala, who pay $200 a ticket, and people will go, and the center will make money.

We can franchise the Kennedy Center’s name in Europe and Asia and the Middle East, like the Louvre does in Abu Dhabi. That would be lucrative.

You can build a marina. I’m convinced it would be terrific. The Kennedy Center is very difficult to access. You put in a little marina, and on the weekend you go there — the yachts park there. You go to a beautiful restaurant. It will be a beautiful experience.

You’ve also suggested sending art to the International Space Station. How would that work? Would you send classics by the masters?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We won’t send a Michaelangelo to space. We won’t send Picasso to space. But a living artist could do three pieces of art. One to send to space, one to auction off to raise money and one to travel around. Imagine a miniature of the bull of Wall Street — a tiny one, a 4-inch one — on the I.S.S.

What do you say to those who might be skeptical of your ideas?

I’m not changing the direction of the art. With the fashion show, for example, it’s not a permanent fashion show, it’s not a permanent exhibit. It’s not “Oh, the crazy guy wants to bring in models.” No. It’s about a once-a-year gala dinner and fashion show.

President Trump has said that he wants to make the Kennedy Center “hot.” What does that mean?

It’s shocking how many people have no idea about the Kennedy Center or how to even get there. Everybody in Milan knows about La Scala. Some people don’t even know where the Kennedy Center is.

How will “Make America Great Again” philosophy translate in the arts?

I don’t think the MAGA movement has any relation to culture. He won the election with MAGA. But he did not win the election campaigning on the Kennedy Center.

Some people have suggested that the president might seek to impose his own cultural tastes on the center, or to feature artists who have supported him. Have you spoken with him about his vision?

I have not. But the president understands this is called the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Arts and sports should not be political.

The president has drawn criticism for purging the Kennedy Center’s board of Biden appointees and making himself chairman.

The center falls under federal authority, and the vision of some previous board members did not align with the president’s. He felt the people around him would go completely against his views. He had the total right to fire them.

For years, the Kennedy Center had a bipartisan tradition, with Republicans and Democrats working together on the board.

In the old system, we couldn’t get improvements. Now, if the president is involved, the center has unlimited potential. This will cut the bureaucracy. There are people who are very close to the president on the board right now. They will be able to escalate issues directly to him.

Are you confident in the center’s ability to raise money going forward? The president fired the chairman of the board, the financier David Rubenstein, who gave the center well over $100 million over the years and helped cultivate other donors.

I admire David’s business success, his charm and his generosity to the center. I’m sure there are many, many, many other very wealthy people who would love to step in for donations. But for me, as a businessman, I see the importance of having a bankable business. You bring more people, you have a better restaurant, you have a better place, and you make more money. We shouldn’t ask people to donate just because it’s called the Kennedy Center. If you make it the hottest place in the world, you double the visitors, and you will have lines outside.

The center is home to the acclaimed National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera. Will those institutions survive under Mr. Trump?

One-hundred percent. Having an orchestra and opera company is one of the core values of a center like this. Everywhere in the world there is something like this.

Several high-profile artists have withdrawn from the Kennedy Center in recent weeks in protest of Mr. Trump’s actions. The producers of “Hamilton” recently canceled a run there. Do you worry that the center will have trouble engaging stars?

I respect freedom of speech and peaceful protest. But if those artists don’t want to work there, don’t worry. There’s going to be another hundred who want to work there. A thousand people would love to work there.