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

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

The president informed reporters Thursday that his administration is planning to pour down a brand new floor onto the underside of the pool, atop its stone flooring. The swimming pool-style floor — made out of the “latest and greatest filament” — can be coloured “American flag blue,” he mentioned.

Built within the Nineteen Twenties, the Reflecting Pool and its environment had been comprehensively renovated in 2012, paid for by $34 million in Obama-era stimulus funding. The National Park Service has carried out some renovations since then, and the pool can also be periodically drained to wash out algae, rubbish, goose droppings and different detritus.

But throughout an Oval Office occasion on drug costs, Mr. Trump mentioned he’s disturbed by the “terrible” situation of the pool, a historic sight that featured closely in Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 March on Washington and different main occasions on the Lincoln Memorial.

He estimated that renovating the pool will take a few week and price roughly $1.5 million. He mentioned contractors have begun engaged on the stones, and began laying down its new “industrial-grade” floor on Thursday.

“You’re going to end up with a beautiful, beautiful reflecting pool, the way it’s supposed to be,” he mentioned, displaying photographs of the development course of. “Much better than it ever was, actually.”

Mr. Trump informed reporters he drew inspiration for the challenge from his days as a New York actual property developer, throughout which he estimated that he constructed greater than 100 swimming swimming pools. He mentioned it was “essentially a pool surface” and that he informed one contractor to “think of it as a swimming pool.” (The basin is greater than 300,000 sq. ft and the size of about 12 Olympic-sized swimming swimming pools.)

Tasked with selecting a shade for the pool ground, Mr. Trump mentioned an unspecified contractor talked him out of choosing Bahamas-style turquoise, arguing “American flag blue” would look extra applicable.

Mr. Trump has pledged to cope with the Reflecting Pool up to now. In November, he posted to social media a video of rubbish strewn subsequent to the pool floor, writing: “Study it hard because you won’t be seeing this Biden filth and incompetence much longer!”

Earlier this month, he wrote that he and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum will repair the pool “at a fraction of the cost” that the administration was initially quoted.

Since returning to the presidency final yr, Mr. Trump has sought to place his stamp on main landmarks within the D.C. space, making modifications massive (tearing down the White House’s East Wing to make manner for a ballroom) and small (including a “Presidential Walk of Fame” to the West Wing).

He has additionally proposed overhauling the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, constructing a gigantic triumphal arch throughout the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial and portray the Eisenhower Executive Office Building white.

Mr. Trump has pitched the renovation initiatives as a strategy to beautify town and deal with long-overdue upkeep wants, and has argued that his deliberate White House ballroom will function a much-needed occasion house that can be utilized for state dinners and different features.

But among the initiatives have drawn criticism from preservation teams and congressional Democrats who argue that he’s unilaterally altering — and in some circumstances, tearing down — iconic public areas with out sufficient input from Congress or the general public.

The president has additionally confronted criticism over the funding mechanism for the ballroom, paid for with a whole lot of hundreds of thousands in non-public donations, and for a call by the Kennedy Center’s board final yr so as to add Mr. Trump to the middle’s identify.