WASHINGTON — When the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was drained this week, it revealed something unexpected: the liner that President Donald Trump once described as “American flag blue” has visibly faded, now looking closer to gray than the vibrant color it displayed when the pool was repainted and refilled in early June.
An Associated Press reporter and photographer got a look at the fenced-off pool on Wednesday by viewing it from the top of the Washington Monument. Work crews had already cleared away debris that was visible earlier in the week following the pool’s draining.
The renovation project has been anything but smooth for the Trump administration, which initially hoped to have the Reflecting Pool ready in time for the nation’s 250th birthday celebration on July 4. That deadline came and went.
The president originally suggested the project would cost around $1.5 million, but expenses climbed to more than $16 million by June. Two companies were hired for the work: Ohio-based Green Water Solutions, also known as Greenwater Services, received a $1.7 million contract to install a water-purification system, while Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings was awarded $14.7 million to repaint and waterproof the pool’s concrete floor.
Trump had claimed the repairs would hold up for a hundred years, but problems emerged almost immediately after the project was first completed. Within days, an algae bloom spread through the water and pieces of the new coating appeared to be coming loose from the bottom.
The president has repeatedly pointed to vandals as the cause of the peeling, while critics argue the real culprit is poor workmanship. Trump has claimed, without providing evidence, that vandals created a “350-foot gash” in the liner. However, no large slash marks were visible from the Washington Monument vantage point on Wednesday. A dark fence surrounding the pool made a closer inspection impossible.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, whose department oversees the National Park Service, laid out a simple plan for moving forward. Speaking with conservative podcaster Katie Miller, he said the path ahead is clear: “Repair the vandalism that was done. Fill it back up again.”
Court documents reveal that the National Park Service reported a June 9 incident to U.S. Park Police, in which a sharp knife or razor blade was said to have cut into the pool’s new liner.
Former Olympic canoe racer David Hearn entered a not guilty plea last week in D.C. Superior Court on charges of deliberately damaging the Reflecting Pool. Hearn has maintained that he only reached into the pool to look at the peeling sealant and released a piece of it when a park worker told him to do so. His legal team and other critics of the Trump administration have called the prosecution an overreach and argue Hearn is being made a scapegoat for a botched repair job.
At least three additional individuals have also been charged with misdemeanors in the same court for allegedly taking pieces of paint from the pool. All three have pleaded not guilty.
The Reflecting Pool project is part of a broader set of renovations Trump has championed across Washington. Among the most notable efforts, he ordered the demolition of the White House’s East Wing to make way for a $400 million ballroom and has announced plans to construct a large arch between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.
