President Donald Trump this week unveiled his rapid project to resurface the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool, saying that a contractor convinced him to use “American Flag Blue” to cover the pool’s basin. The changes have some historic preservationists feeling blue.
Trump on Thursday walked through his planned renovation of the century-old pool, touting his expertise at building “more than 100 swimming pools” during his real estate career, and saying that he had involved his personal contractors. The project — the most extensive overhaul of the reflecting pool in 15 years — will be completed in time to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration on July 4, the president said.
“Now we have a nice clean surface on which we’re putting an industrial-grade swimming pool topping,” Trump said in a video released by the White House. The president said the new surface would prevent the leaks that have frequently affected the pool for several decades.
The reworking of the reflecting pool represents the latest controversial change to Washington by a president who has moved swiftly — and often unilaterally — to remake the capital city. Trump has proposed a 250-foot triumphal arch and a 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom, affixed his name to the Kennedy Center and the Institute of Peace, and undertaken other efforts to reshape Washington, some of which have skirted decades of precedent and federal law. Major projects on the National Mall are supposed to undergo reviews by federal panels, receive public input and potentially require congressional authorization — none of which appears to have happened with this project.
“I do think the process is important here,” said Ken Salazar, who served as Interior Secretary during the Obama administration and oversaw past projects to clean and renovate the reflecting pool. “There’s so many people that have worked very hard on making the National Mall what it is today … there may have been input, but I haven’t heard of it.”
Some historic preservationists and other experts warned that Trump’s renovations could distort the experience for visitors. Charles A. Birnbaum, who heads the Cultural Landscape Foundation, an education and advocacy organization, noted that the neutral colors used for the pool’s basin were intended to convey greater depth and reflection that could now be threatened by the president’s changes.
“A blue-tinted basin risks reading more like a large lap pool than the solemn and hallowed visual and spatial connection between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial,” Birnbaum wrote in an email.
He also pointed to a 2009 National Park Service report, conducted before the last major renovation, which detailed the careful intention of the pool’s designers and Park Service officials to preserve vistas.
“So, now that doesn’t matter?” Birnbaum wrote.
The project also provoked sharp reactions online, where social media users circulated AI-altered images of the pool to make it resemble a Trump resort and jabbed at Trump’s taste. Dan Silverman, the proprietor of PoPville, a website that covers Washington, invoked a lyric from a Joni Mitchell song that warns “you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.”
“I think the reflecting pool is an iconic piece of the National Mall, and while it needs an annual cleaning, painting the ground blue to make it look like a swimming pool is completely unnecessary. One might even say it’s disrespectful,” Silverman wrote in an email.
The reflecting pool, about 160 feet wide and 2,100 feet long, was constructed in the early 1920s. Its shimmering surface has since captured major events, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” civil rights speech in 1963, and it has become a staple of films and TV shows set in Washington. A scene in the award-winning 1994 film “Forrest Gump” features a memorable reunion in the pool.
But the pool has long been plagued by leaks, algae and other problems that have forced frequent cleanings and multiple renovation projects. The Obama administration announced its own reconstruction of the pool in April 2009, a process that ultimately took several years and cost $34 million.
Trump unveiled his own plan in the Oval Office on Thursday, saying that he grew interested in rehabbing the pool after a friend from Germany told him that the water was “filthy, dirty … disgusting looking. It’s not representative of the country.” The president said he subsequently inspected the pool with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and the Secret Service, but dismissed what he said was a $301 million, 3.5-year proposal to fix the site.
“I said, ‘You know, Doug, I have a guy who’s unbelievable at doing swimming pools. Up the road, we have a club. We have an Olympic-size swimming pool,’” Trump told reporters on Thursday, walking through his thought process. “I said, ‘I have an idea. I’m going to send my contractor over and take a look.’ He looked at it. He called me up. He said, ‘Sir, we can do something on it.’”
Trump said that his pool renovations would cost less than $2 million and be completed within two weeks.
“I think it’s a great business story,” Trump said Thursday in the Oval Office, as he spoke for nearly 10 minutes about his plans.
Asked about the project, the Interior Department cited social media posts praising it, including from Burgum. “The Reflecting Pool is about to look better than ever!” the interior secretary wrote, thanking Trump.
The Interior Department did not respond to questions about the cost of the initial proposal quoted to Trump, which developers worked on the project and if there had been any study of whether Trump’s alterations would affect the pool’s reflections.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the project. Since Thursday’s announcement, Trump has posted a flurry of messages on social media extolling the project and mocking its appearance under prior administrations.
Some lawmakers said Trump’s focus on the reflecting pool shows that he is too fixated on Washington-area renovation projects rather than issues that affect voters. The president has repeatedly invoked his projects, including a black granite path at the White House that he has pushed to complete before King Charles III’s arrival on Monday.
“As Trump gets ready to play host to King Charles III this week, his emphasis on pageantry and decorations instead of our nation’s economic pain is a reminder that he wants to be a king — and why 250 years ago, America decided that we didn’t want one,” Rep. Gabe Amo (D-Rhode Island) wrote in a text message.
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-California) put it more succinctly: “No one except Donald Trump wants to have a national conversation about the reflecting pool right now.”
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