Tourists gaze out over the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as it undergoes a blue painting process in Washington, D.C., May 11, 2026.Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
The price of President Donald Trump's continuous restoration of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool is drawing near $15 million, according to government contract documents examined by ABC News.
Agreements to repair the reflecting pool’s surface and substitute its filtering apparatus were granted bypassing a competitive tender process, asserting that the nation's forthcoming 250th year milestone celebrations created an "extraordinary and urgent necessity."
"[D]elaying the approval process long enough to undertake a competitive procurement would impede the National Park Service from finishing the task in a timely manner to reopen the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool for the Nation's 250th anniversary festivities," the Department of the Interior stated in contracting papers. "This hindrance would culminate in grave detriment to the Government, encompassing the failure to satisfy legal visitor-safety mandates and operational responsibilities for the 250th."
Workers apply a blue protective coating as part of a renovation project to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, May 8, 2026, on the National Mall in Washington.Rahmat Gul/AP
The present expenditure for the repainting is almost ten times the $1.5 million projection that Trump has constantly detailed.
"So we erect it in far shorter time for considerably less money, but I don’t imply marginally less. I allude to figures that are unbelievable to everybody. Therefore, it’s $1.5 million compared to $300 million," Trump expressed in a video recorded from the Oval Office on April 23.
The Trump government has disbursed $1.74 million to an Ohio establishment to supplant the present filtering mechanism for the reflecting pool. The government initially allocated $6.8 million to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a Virginia enterprise, to repaint the reflecting pool, even though the Interior Department incorporated an extra $6.2 million to the agreement last week.
Trump formerly remarked that he designated the contractor for the repainting because that specific firm had executed labor at one of his golf venues.
"Over the years, functioning as a developer, I've arguably constructed beyond 100 swimming baths across diverse buildings I constructed, and I maintain a selection of really exceptional pool constructors," he conveyed in the Oval Office last month.
In a social media announcement Monday night, Trump criticized the New York Times for publishing details concerning the escalating expense of the refurbishment despite the costs outlined in official records, contending that former presidential administrations have likewise expended millions to enhance the location.
Workers continue painting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool blue in Washington, D.C., May 10, 2026.Annabelle Gordon/Reuters
"I collaborated alongside our present formidable Department of the Interior and clarified to them that we ought to regard this as a highly complex swimming bath, not a dripping, decayed facade, joints and everything, of a building," Trump wrote. "Instead of requiring 4 years to erect, at an expenditure, granite pavers and all, of 400 Million Dollars, we could build a vastly superior Reflecting Pool for 5 or 6 Million Dollars, and could finalize the undertaking in 2 weeks as opposed to 4 years. What a divergence in time and money, and in exchange for a vastly superior final product!"
Sourse: abcnews.go.com