Trump Repairs to Reflecting Pool Fact Checked

On Friday, he posted photos on social media showing the work well underway. A photo posted by President Trump shows work crews resurfacing the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in a color he described as "American flag blue," April ...

The National Park Service previously oversaw a major rehabilitation of the Reflecting Pool that was completed in 2012 at a cost of roughly $30 million, addressing structural issues and chronic leaking that had plagued the site for years.

Trump told reporters last Thursday ... estate development days to clean up the pool, fix some of its joints and resurface it with "industrial-grade" material in the color "American flag blue."...

Trump's proposed 2027 fiscal year budget, unveiled this month, includes a $10 billion "Presidential Capital Stewardship Program" for beautification and construction projects around the city, led by the National Park Service.

Trump in his fiscal 2027 spending request has asked Congress for $10 billion to fund these types of projects, arguing that the city, its parks, monuments and fountains have fallen into disrepair.

The pool, the site of historical events such as Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech, had its last major renovation in 2012 in a $34 million project that lasted almost two years.

President Donald Trump used a White ... sector, and a personal story about renovating the National Mall’s reflecting pool for $1.9 million instead of a government-estimated $350 million....

The president has been floating the idea that he would redo the reflecting pool since last year. The pool was previously renovated under the Obama administration and has been periodically drained for maintenance since. Trump has sought to put his stamp on Washington across multiple projects, including his unilateral effort to raze the East Wing of the White House to build a new ballroom and a proposed project to build a towering triumphal arch on the banks of the Potomac River.

... Trump sharply criticized the Obama administration’s previous rehabilitation of the Reflecting Pool, which reportedly cost roughly $38 million and was completed in 2012 under the National Park Service.