Trump says he’ll resurface Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, turning it blue

President Trump’s renovation push has now reached the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

The president told reporters on Thursday that his administration plans to pour a new surface at the bottom of the pool, over its stone pavement. The swimming pool-style surface, made from the “latest and best filament,” will be painted the color “American flag blue,” he said.

The Reflecting Pool and its surroundings, built in the 1920s Extensively renovated in 2012$34 million was paid from Obama-era stimulus funding. The National Park Service carried out some renovations since thenand the pool too periodically filtered to remove algae, litter, goose droppings and other debris.

But during an Oval Office event on drug prices, Mr. Trump said he was troubled by the “horrible” condition of the pool; it was a historic sight featured heavily during Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 march on Washington and other notable events at the Lincoln Memorial.

He estimated the pool renovation would take about a week and cost about $1.5 million. Contractors have begun work on the stones and began laying the new “industrial grade” surface on Thursday, he said.

“You’ll end up with a beautiful, beautiful reflecting pool, just as it should be,” he said, showing photos of the construction process. “It’s actually better than ever.”

Mr. Trump told reporters that he drew inspiration for the project from his days working as a real estate developer in New York, during which time he estimated he built more than 100 swimming pools. He said it was “essentially a pool surface” and told one of the contractors to “think of it as a swimming pool.” (The basin is more than 300,000 square meters and is about the length of 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools.)

Tasked with choosing colors for the pool floor, Mr. Trump said an unnamed contractor talked him out of choosing Bahamas-style turquoise, suggesting that “American flag blue” would look more appropriate.

Mr. Trump has promised to deal with the Reflecting Pool in the past. it in november shared a video on social media A pile of trash strewn next to the pool surface reads: “Work hard because you won’t be seeing this Biden filth and incompetence for much longer!”

At the beginning of this month he wrote He said he and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum would repair the pool at a cost well below what the administration originally proposed.

Since returning to the presidency last year, Mr. Trump has sought to make his mark on major landmarks in the D.C. area; made major (demolishing the East Wing of the White House to make room for the ballroom) and minor changes (adding a “Presidential Walk of Fame” to the West Wing).

He also offered Overhaul of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Artsbuild a building huge triumphal arch from the Lincoln Memorial across the Potomac River and table The Eisenhower Executive Office Building is white.

Mr. Trump touted the renovation projects as a way to beautify the city and address overdue maintenance needs, arguing that the planned White House ballroom would serve as a much-needed event space that could be used for state dinners and other functions.

But some of the projects have been criticized by preservation groups and Congressional Democrats, who argue they unilaterally alter and in some cases demolish iconic public spaces. Adequate input from Congress or the public.

The president has also faced criticism over the ballroom’s financing mechanism, paid for by hundreds of millions in private donations, and the Kennedy Center board’s decision last year to add Mr. Trump to the center’s name.