Visitors to America’s 63 national parks are helping to pay for Donald Trump’s Washington, D.C., renovation projects with their entrance fees, whether they like it or not.
The president has emphasized the importance of renovating the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and several ornamental fountains around the capital ahead of the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations this summer. National park visitors, it turns out, have been helping fund those projects for months.
At least $67 million in admissions fees is being used for that purpose, The New York Times reported, with just under $60 million of that going toward repairs to nine fountains, federal records show.
Another $7 million is being used on the reflecting pool. That’s on top of the $13.1 million that the Interior Department is paying—an amount that is more than seven times what Trump had anticipated.
Of the nearly $75 million in recreation fees that the Park Service spent between December 2025 and March of this year, over 75 percent was allocated for the D.C. fountains, according to the Times. More than 90 percent went to capital area projects in general.
That allocation of park fees—which is legal—is an outlier compared to past administrations, even Trump’s. The Times notes that in Trump’s first term and in Joe Biden’s administration, no more than five percent of recreation fees went toward Washington-based projects. Prior to last December, the Trump administration designated only two percent of admissions fees to that end.
When reached for comment, the White House defended the move.
“For the first time in decades, both visitors and residents of Washington, D.C. are able to enjoy fountains and parks that had been long forgotten and neglected,” spokesperson Taylor Rogers told the Daily Beast in part. “The President’s beautification efforts are incredibly popular and are even publicly supported by Democrats who have an ounce of common sense. President Trump promised to Make D.C. Safe and Beautiful again, and he continues to deliver.”
Interior Department spokesperson Katie Martin told the Daily Beast that the National Park Service “has not only been focused on beautifying the district but has also been working on many deferred maintenance projects throughout the country.” Trump, she added, “has made Washington, D.C. Safe and Beautiful again and we should all be grateful.”
While some groups, like Washington Parks & People, praised the use of the fees, some conservation organizations lamented how other projects remain on the back burner.
“Our parks and public lands have been underfunded for decades, and there are many genuinely urgent projects in need of funding across the country,” Aaron Weiss, executive director of conservation group the Center for Western Priorities, told the Times. “Instead, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is determined to divert millions of dollars to projects that President Trump can see out his window.”
The cost of deferred maintenance projects at the end of 2024, according to the Times, was approximately $23 billion.
In addition to the various fountains and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the Trump administration is fixing two fountains in Lafayette Park, across from the White House. For that job, the administration secretly gave a no-bid $17.4 million contract to Clark Construction, the Maryland-based company that is working on his ballroom, the Times reported last month.
