Trump talks ‘very beautiful’ resurfacing plan for Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool 08:27
President Trump’s renovations have now reached the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
The president told reporters Thursday that his administration plans to pour a new surface on the stone floor at the bottom of the pool. The pool-like surface, he said, will be made from “the latest and greatest filament” and will be “American flag blue.”
The Reflecting Pool and its surrounding area were built in the 1920s and underwent a complete renovation in 2012 with funding from $34 million in Obama-era stimulus funds. The National Park Service has since made some renovations, and the pool is regularly drained to remove algae, trash, goose droppings and other debris.
But during an Oval Office event about drug prices, Trump said he was disturbed by the “terrible” condition of the pool, a historical sight seen at Martin Luther King’s 1963 March on Washington and other major events at the Lincoln Memorial.
He estimated that renovating the pool would take about a week and cost about $1.5 million. He said contractors have already begun work on the stones and will begin laying a new “industrial grade” surface on Thursday.
“You end up with a very, very nice reflecting pool, just like it should be,” he said, holding up photos of the construction process. “Actually, it’s better than before.”
On Friday, he posted photos on social media showing work in progress.
A photo posted by President Trump shows crews repaving the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool with a color he described.
Trump told reporters he got inspiration for the project from his time as a New York real estate developer, during which he estimated he built more than 100 swimming pools. He said it was “essentially a pool surface” and he told a contractor to “think of it like a swimming pool.” (The basin is more than 300,000 square feet and about the length of 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools.)
Trump, who was in charge of choosing the color for the pool floor, said an unnamed contractor talked him out of choosing Bahamian-style turquoise, saying “American flag blue” looked more appropriate.
Mr. Trump has promised to address the reflecting pool issue in the past. In November, he posted a video on social media of trash strewn across the surface of a pool and wrote: “Study hard because you will never see the dirty and incompetent Joe Biden again!”
Earlier this month, he wrote that he and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum would restore the pool “at a fraction of the cost” of the government’s original offer.
Since returning to office last year, Mr. Trump has sought to leave his mark on major Washington-area landmarks, making changes big (demolishing the East Wing to make way for a ballroom) and small (adding a Presidential Walk of Fame to the West Wing).
He also proposed overhauling the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, building a massive triumphal arch across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial, and painting the Eisenhower Executive Office Building white.
Trump sees the renovation project as a way to beautify the city and address belated maintenance needs, and believes his planned White House ballroom will become a much-needed event space that can be used for state dinners and other events.
But some of the projects have drawn criticism from preservation groups and congressional Democrats who say he is unilaterally altering — and in some cases even tearing down — iconic public spaces without adequate input from Congress or the public.
The president has also faced criticism over the ballroom’s funding mechanism, paid for by hundreds of millions in private donations, and the Kennedy Center’s board of directors’ decision last year to add Mr. Trump to the center’s name.