Donald Trump’s handpicked contractor admitted it was to blame for problems with the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, further undercutting the president’s baseless assertion that “vandals” were responsible.
In government documents dated August 14 and September 2, Atlantic Industrial Coatings acknowledged that design and construction issues with the pool caused the blue liner to peel, The New York Times reported.
Specifically, layers of the liner did not stick together because workers didn’t use enough primer—a problem of “human oversight,” the documents say.
Additionally, two chemicals in the liner layers were incompatible. When the top-level chemical reached a certain temperature in the summer sun, the bottom layer blistered and came apart. This wasn’t anticipated, the contractor said in the documents, because those chemicals rarely mix.
The Trump administration’s attempted renovation of the pool was not only botched, but fast-tracked as well, so that it could be ready for the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations in July.
The administration awarded Atlantic Industrial Coatings a no-bid contract to complete a job that David Schutzenhofer, the general manager of Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey golf club, helped design. The project has cost $14.7 million so far.
The pool is still drained. Atlantic Industrial Coating says in the documents that it will consult an adviser for the chemical manufacturer, Rhino Linings, while it repairs the pool with a smaller team of workers.
When reached for comment, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers did not directly address the contractor’s admission.
“President Trump promised to make D.C. safe and beautiful, and he’s delivering. For years, the Reflecting Pool sat neglected, plagued with algae, and leaking millions of gallons of water. Fixing it was common sense. It’s another example of President Trump restoring our nation’s capital for the American people,” she told the Daily Beast.
A spokesperson for the Department of the Interior said as part of a lengthy statement that American Industrial Coatings is still on the job “to make sure the work is perfect,” while continuing to blame “vandals” for damage.
Friday’s news comes after Trump’s top prosecutor in Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro, dropped a case against an Olympic medalist and others accused of vandalizing the pool, citing the “flawed installation by the contractor” and the Department of the Interior’s “failure to fully and accurately provide information” to Pirro’s prosecutors.
