President Trump’s renovation kick has now reached the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
The president told reporters Thursday that his administration plans to pour a new surface at the bottom of the pool, above its stone floor. The swimming pool-style surface — made of “the latest and greatest filament” — will be an “American flag blue” color, he said.
Built in 1920, the reflecting pool and its surroundings were extensively renovated in 2012, paid for by $34 million in Obama-era stimulus funds. The National Park Service has done some maintenance since then, and the pond is periodically drained to flush out algae, dirt, goose droppings, and other detritus.
But at an event on drug prices in the Oval Office, Mr Trump said he was disturbed by the “terrible” condition of the pool, a historic sight at Martin Luther King Jr’s 1963 March on Washington and other major events at the Lincoln Memorial.
He estimated it would take about a week to repair the pool and cost about $15 million. He said contractors have begun work on the stone, and began laying its new “industrial-grade” surface on Thursday.
“You’re going to end up with a beautiful, beautiful reflecting pool, as it should be,” he said, showing photos of the construction process. “It was much better than before, actually.”
President Trump poses with an image of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool during an event on health care affordability in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Washington. / Credit: Mark Schiefelbein / AP
Mr Trump told reporters he got inspiration for the project from his days 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 told a contractor to “think of it as a swimming pool”. (The basin is more than 300,000 square feet and has the length of about 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools.)
Tasked with choosing a color for the pool floor, Mr. Trump said an unspecified contractor had talked him into choosing Bahamas-style turquoise, arguing that “American flag blue” would be more appropriate.
Mr. Trump has promised to deal with the pool mirrored in the past. In November, he posted a video on social media of garbage littering the surface of a pond, writing: “Study this hard because you won’t be seeing this Biden filth and incompetence for much longer!”
Earlier this month, he wrote that he and Interior Secretary Doug Bergum would fix the pool “at a fraction of the cost” that the administration initially quoted.
Since returning to the presidency last year, Mr. Trump has sought to put his stamp on major DC area landmarks, making changes big (demolishing the East Wing of the White House to make way for a ballroom) and small (adding the “President’s Walk of Fame” to the West Wing).
He has proposed overhauling the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, building a giant Triumphal Arch across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial, and painting the Eisenhower Executive Office Building white.
Mr. Trump has pitched the renovation projects as a way to beautify the city and address long-overdue maintenance needs, and has argued that his planned White House ballroom would serve as a much-needed event space that could be used for state banquets and other functions.
But some of the projects have drawn criticism from conservation groups and congressional Democrats who argue he is unilaterally changing — and in some cases, demolishing — iconic public spaces without enough input from Congress or the public.
The president has faced criticism for the funding mechanism for the ballroom, paid for by millions in private donations, and for the Kennedy Center’s board’s decision last year to add Mr. Trump to the center’s name.
