Donald Trump’s rush to repaint the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, an iconic symbol of Washington DC, has hit roadblock after roadblock as the country’s 250th anniversary nears.
The public has been gripped by the ill-fated $14m bid to renovate the reflecting pool, which the US president vowed to make “beautiful” in time for this summer’s birthday celebrations at the capital.
Trump sought to turn the monument “American flag blue” in time for the Fourth of July holiday, awarding a no-bid contract to a company he said had previously done work on swimming pools at one of his golf clubs. But it has endured problems with algae, peeling paint and a ballooning price tag.
The pool, built in 1922, runs more than 2,000ft between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. Martin Luther King Jr delivered his I Have a Dream speech in front of the reflecting pool in 1963.
Trump claimed this renovation of the site would be far more successful than those which took place under other presidents. He even posted an AI-generated image of himself and other administration officials shirtless in the renovated pool (you cannot swim in the reflecting pool).
But as an unmistakably green hue continues to cover the pool, the president is now claiming foul play. Here’s a rundown of his many claims about the project, and what actually happened.
How much has it cost?
Trump originally said the renovation would cost $1.8m to repair and repaint the reflecting pool.
But the price has ballooned to nearly $15m, the federal contract shows.
The Obama administration repaired and renovated the pool over the course of two years, ending in 2012, spending about $34m to address leaks, filtration and paint. The project also made the pool shallower to save water.
Who took on the renovation project?
The Trump administration claimed the work needed to be done at “Trump speed”, and bypassed the competitive bidding process typically required for federal projects and awarded a no-bid contract.
This went to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a Virginia-based businessthat has not previously won any federal contracts. About $14.7m has been allocated to the firm, which Trump said had previously worked at his golf club in Virginia, though the company did not confirm this tie.
Unions have scrutinized the project, saying there are companies with expertise that would have wanted to bid and that workers’ safety could be at risk.
Another no-bid contract was awarded to a Trump donor who is a neighbor of Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida club. John J Cafaro’s water treatment company got a $1.7m contract for the filtration system intended to address issues with algae.
What color is the pool?
The bottom of the reflecting pool has historically been grayish, intended to reflect the monuments around it. But Trump sought to make the site “American flag blue”, a dark shade of navy officially called “Old Glory Blue”.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation filed a lawsuit to try to stop the work, saying the paint job amounted to an “aesthetic injury”, adding that “painting the basin blue would cause it to compete for attention and fundamentally alter the existing harmony, solemnity, and dignity of the current memorial landscape”.
To some, the deep blue which emerged in the immediate aftermath of the project appeared very deep – nearly black.
Why did it turn green?
Within days of the completion of the work, the water started to appear green – because of algae plaguing the standing water.
The Trump administration has claimed the water is “crystal clear” when it visibly was not. It blamed reports to the contrary on the “fake news” media.
The interior department said it is using an “advanced nanobubbler technology” to kill algae, which the National Park Service is then vacuuming up. Workers and contractors have been wading through the pool for days, cleaning algae, and have also been seen pouring hydrogen peroxide – bleach – into the pool to attempt to clean it.
Officials have repeatedly prematurely declared victory over the algae, including last week, when the interior department likened it to “the destroyed Iranian navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf”. The algae remained visible in the pool.
Algae growth is common in conditions with shallow, stagnant water in the summer, as is the case for the reflecting pool. Emptying and replacing the water could have accelerated the growth.
“It’s called ‘new pond syndrome’,” Steve Goodale, a swimming pool specialist known online as “Swimming Pool Steve” told NPR. “It’s a known thing that happens when you take a natural, clear body of water like this that sits in an open air environment and you try to start it up, very often you end up with green water almost immediately.”
What happened to the paint?
To make matters worse, the coating of paint applied during the renovation also started to peel off. People have pulled chunks of floating paint out of the pool in recent days after it detached from the bottom.
Who is at fault?
Trump acknowledged “real problems” with the site, which he said he had examined himself, this week. He has not acknowledged any issues with the renovation he ordered, however.
Instead, the president blamed the pool’s woes on “vandals”, which he claimed had taken “some form of knife or blade” and delivered a 250ft gash into the pool’s facade. By Monday, when Trump was still posting about the site, this alleged damage had grown into a “300 foot long gash”.
Reporters at the Washington Post who visited the pool on Sunday, could see no evidence of such damage, it reported, despite Trump’s claims.
Trump also claimed that unidentified vandals have poured “corrosive and destructive chemicals” into the pool. Contractors will probably have to drain the water to do repairs, he said.
Government workers were seen pouring hydrogen peroxide into the water to tackle the algae.
Who has been blamed?
Five people had been arrested for vandalizing the pool and another five were issued federal citations as of Saturday, CBS News reported, citing an unnamed administration official.
It’s not clear if any committed acts of vandalism. Washington Post reporters witnessed people interacting with police after pulling objects from the water. Peeling paint has been floating on the surface at times.
A three-time US Olympian and canoeist was arrested on Friday after noticing a partly detached piece of the blue liner and reaching into the water to see what it felt like, he said.
“I didn’t vandalize anything,” David Hearn, who had been cycling, told the Washington Post. “I didn’t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.”
What happens now?
Trump said over the weekend that contractors “will probably be forced to release and drain much of the water” to repair the pool.
“Work will begin immediately on fixing the seriously vandalized Reflecting Pool,” he wrote on Truth Social. “I just inspected it, and could only say to myself, and those gathered around me, WOW, who would do such a thing? SICK, DERANGED PEOPLE! We will fix it?”
Time will tell.