Trump’s Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool work comes under scrutiny: 4 things to know

Administration Trump’s Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool work comes under scrutiny: 4 things to know Comments: by Mallory Wilson - 06/19/26 5:23 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Mallory Wilson - 06/19/26 5:23 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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President Trump’s efforts to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool have not gone smoothly, despite the president maintaining he has a lot of experience with pools.

Questions have swirled about the no-bid, multimillion dollar contract given to complete the pool renovations, one of several Trump beautification projects in Washington, D.C., ahead of the U.S.’s 250th anniversary.

And now, just two weeks out from the completion of the pool’s renovation, it has seen a massive algae bloom and peeling paint.

Here are four things to know about the issues with the century-old Reflecting Pool:

No bid contract

Trump first announced his plans to renovate the Reflecting Pool in April, saying he would fix leaks and change the color of the bottom to “American flag blue.”

He repeatedly bashed the state of the pool, calling it disgusting and an “embarrassment to our Country” and said it needed to be done ahead of the semiquincentennial this July.

The project caught flak after the Department of the Interior awarded a no-bid contract to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a Virginia firm that has done work on pools at the Trump’s golf club in Sterling.

It was the company’s first federal contract.

There was some confusion over who the contractor was because the president had at first said he spoke to a man he knew about the job but later walked back the comment.

The New York Times reported last month that the contract came with an inflated profit margin.

The outlet obtained a National Park Service analysis that found the firm received a 20 percent margin on the project, which is well above the typical rate, adding at least $850,000 to what a typical contract would have cost.

An Interior spokesperson told The Hill last month that the contract price “reflects the effort necessary” to complete the project ahead of Independence Day celebrations for America’s birthday on the National Mall.

Cost for work has ballooned

The cost of the contract for work on the reflecting pool has ballooned up to $14.7 million, federal records showed this week.

The contract given to Atlantic Industrial, which was tasked with resealing, waterproofing and repainting the pool, has gone up more than $1.5 million in just the past month.

The company was contracted through June 3, and on that day, records show a transaction that brought the cost up to $14.2 million.

But then on June 15, there was an additional transaction of roughly $460,000, bringing the total up to $14.7 million. It’s not clear what the expense was for.

The money for the work comes from the Recreation Enhancement Fee Program, according to the federal database, which receives funding from park visitor entrance fees.

It’s not easy being green

Green algae was quick to make its comeback after the renovations were finished, turning the pool’s color from blue to green.

Earlier this week, the Department of the Interior wrote in a social media post that nanobubbler technology was being used to kill the algae, an issue that has “plagued every Lincoln Reflecting Pool reopening — most infamously Obama’s reopening — since 1922.”

“The Reflecting Pool water is crystal clear, and our National Park Service team is now vacuuming up the dead algae resting on the bottom of some parts of the Reflecting Pool—just like the destroyed Iranian Navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf,” Interior said.

The department took to using hydrogen peroxide in the pool to combat the algae growth, and photos circled on social media of workers pouring gallons of the chemical in.

An Interior spokesperson said the chemical has “no harmful side effects to marine life or to the environment.”

Peeling paint

Trump specially picked the color for the bottom of the reflecting pool, but the material used appears to have survived less than two weeks at the bottom of the pool before photos showed it peeling away and floating to the top.

The Hill has reached out to Interior for further comment.

The president had been particularly proud of the color and the renovation project.

He praised the material in a Truth Social post announcing the reflecting pools opening earlier this month, saying it’s “thick, strong, flexible, and has a natural, beautiful color, the dark blue of the American Flag!”

Rachel Frazin contributed to this report.