Donald Trump’s $17 million pool project just faced another backlash. The president’s flagship renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool faces mounting scrutiny after reported damage and conflicting accounts over what went wrong.
The $17 million reflecting pool renovation draws scrutiny over reported damage
Federal employees are inspecting damage at multiple spots of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool following President Donald Trump’s $17 million renovation, The Daily Beast reported. The project has drawn scrutiny after patches of pool lining floated to the surface. Experts believe a shoddy installation by the no-bid contractor likely caused the lining troubles.
Trump ordered the entire pool drained while crews address the damage. He has blamed apparent vandals for the problems, claiming they committed “very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments.” He also warned those responsible will spend “years in jail.”
The president alleged that vandals “took some form of knife or blade” to create a 250-foot-long gash. He later increased the alleged size of the gash to 300 yards in a Truth Social post. “The slashes were 300 yards long, and the floor of the pool was cut and then pulled upward, with great force, by these thugs,” Trump wrote.
Neither the president nor his officials have provided evidence supporting these claims. Internal National Park Service documents reviewed by The New York Times tell a different story. Two workers found two small cuts in the foam lining of the pool’s expansion joints. Those cuts were entirely unrelated to the “American Flag Blue” paint coating peeling from the surface. The documents also confirmed the cuts had no connection to a separate algae bloom that turned the water green.
An FBI evidence team visited the drained pool last week to assist U.S. Park Police. The Department of Justice has charged at least four people with crimes related to the pool. Federal prosecutors have admitted those charged were not responsible for the liner problems. All of the incidents occurred after the liner was already seen peeling up. Interior Secretary Doug Bergum has said he is treating the algae issue as a priority for his department.
