The costlier-than-anticipated renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington will result in “something very special,” Donald Trump promised on Wednesday.
In a post on Truth Social, the president wrote at length about the project, which he initially said would cost $1.8 million, only for the Interior Department to announce later that it would be paying $13.1 million. The resealing and painting of the pool surface in “American flag blue,” Trump has said, would be completed in time for the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations in July.
“I, together with Doug Burgum and the Department of Interior, am fixing it the right and proper way — It will last for many decades into the future,“ Trump, 79, wrote.
”We’ve had rain delays, and have substantially increased our scope of work as to quality, durability, and even including the stone and granite on the outside of the water itself — A big job, much bigger than originally conceived, but it is being done, after over a Century of ‘stop and go’s,’ correctly! You will see something very special at the Reflecting Pool in a short period of time. Stay tuned."
Trump also said his administration has been making “many” fountains in the area functional again.
He and Burgum have been “opening up many of the decades old, closed Fountains throughout the D.C. area,” Trump wrote.
“So far, over 20 have been revitalized, and fixed, looking better than the day they were built, many years ago. We have some left, some were in very bad and difficult condition, but we will get them all done in a short time,” he added.
Lafayette Park, right outside the White House gates, Trump added, is also being “entirely rebuilt.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, Trump’s renovation of the Lincoln Memorial is the subject of a lawsuit by The Cultural Landscape Foundation, which claims that the process of repainting the pool has violated the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. The Trump administration did not obtain input from Congress or run the project by relevant federal agencies before the painting began.
Additionally, the federal government handed the no-bid contract to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which had renovated pools at the president’s golf club in Sterling, Virginia, but which had never had a federal contract, records show. The Trump administration used an exemption that is meant to be used to prevent “serious injury, financial or other, to the government” to give out the no-bid contract.
But now there are concerns that a rushed project could jeopardize workers’ safety.
“With this project, they are trying to rush on a timescale that is most likely to leave some liability with the contractor,” Herbert Zaldivar, business development director at the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, told the Guardian after viewing the work site.
“The chemicals are hazardous,” Zaldivar said. “My concern is usually the level of risk when it’s a rush. Are workers taking the rightful steps to protect themselves?”
Trump toured the site—and met with workers—earlier this month. When asked about the optics of the project as the Iran war drags on and gas prices remain high, he lashed out at the “stupid” question from the reporter, whom he called “the worst.”
