Apr 28, 2026
President Donald Trump has begun another plan to reshape a national landmark in Washington, and some preservationists are concerned over the president's choice of paint color.
The president revealed last week that he had plans to resurface the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, painting its basin a bright, "American Flag Blue," according to a Washington Post report (1). Crews have begun the work on the reflecting pool, which is more than 100 years old.
Advertisement
Trump said that the price tag for the renovations to the reflecting pool would be less than $2 million, and be finished within two weeks, the Washington Post reported.
When discussing the plans in a video posted on his social media site Truth Social, the president began by framing the changes to the pool as a cost-saving endeavor. "I do a lot of this as president, and, try and save money," he said (2).
Trump also described the pool as "filthy dirty" and said it currently had no water in it because it "leaked like a sieve." He said that he went to inspect the pool with a group including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and the Secret Service.
"They had bids to fix it, they were going to take the stone out, which was granite — very expensive, very thick — and replace it with stone, and it was going to cost $300 million, and it was going to take maybe more than three years. And I said, 'No, there's a better way of doing it.'"
Trump goes on in the video to say that he called "people that have worked for me in the past doing swimming pools, that's all they can do is a swimming pool, and I say give me a good price, we can do it for maybe a million and a half to two million dollars."
Advertisement
Trump said the existing granite was scrubbed and grouted, and on that "nice, clean surface" an "industrial grade swimming pool topping" would be applied in the color "American flag blue."
The choice to paint the granite could impact the way visitors to the National Mall experience it, according to preservationists.
"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," Charles A. Birnbaum, who heads the Cultural Landscape Foundation, told the Post in an email.
According to the Washington Post report, "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."
The reflecting pool, constructed in 1922 and 1923, is not the first landmark the president has sought to modify.
Advertisement
Trump tore down the East Wing in October to make room for a new 90,000-square-foot ballroom, a move that brought controversy, and a lawsuit from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has slowed the construction (3), the New York Times reported.
According to the Times, the president is financing the cost of the ballroom "with at least $350 million raised from corporate donors and political allies."
The president has also made plans to build a 250-foot tall triumphal arch that would stand near Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial; the costs for the arch have not been released by the White House, a New York Times report says.
According to the report, a group of Vietnam war veterans and an architectural historian have filed lawsuits aiming to stop its construction (4).
Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
The Washington Post (1); Truth Social (2); The New York Times (3),(4)
You May Also Like
- Turning 50 with $0 saved for retirement? Most people don’t realize they’re actually just entering their prime earning decade. Here are 6 ways to catch up fast
- Inside a $1B real estate fund offering access to thousands of income-producing rental properties — with flexible minimums starting at $10
- Dave Ramsey says this 7-step plan ‘works every single time’ to kill debt, get rich in America — and that ‘anyone’ can do it
- Here are 5 easy ways to own multiple properties like Bezos and Beyoncé. You can start with $10 (and no, you don’t have to manage a single thing)
Rebecca Payne has more than a decade of experience editing and producing both local and national daily newspapers. She's worked on the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, Metro, Canada's National Observer, the Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press.
