Trump says he'll resurface the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, turning it blue

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CBS News

Updated on: April 23, 2026 / 8:08 PM EDT


President Trump's renovation kick has now reached the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The president told reporters Thursday that his administration is planning to pour down a new surface onto the bottom of the pool, atop its stone flooring. The swimming pool-style surface — made out of the "latest and greatest filament" — will be colored "American flag blue," he said.

Built in the 1920s, the Reflecting Pool and its surroundings were 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 is also periodically drained to scrub out algae, garbage, goose droppings and other detritus.

But during an Oval Office event on drug prices, Mr. Trump said he is disturbed by the "terrible" condition of the pool, a historic sight that featured heavily in Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 March on Washington and other major events at the Lincoln Memorial.

He estimated that renovating the pool will take about a week and cost roughly $1.5 million. He said contractors have begun working on the stones, and started laying down its new "industrial-grade" surface on Thursday. "You're going to end up with a beautiful, beautiful reflecting pool, the way it's supposed to be," he said, showing photos of the construction process. "Much better than it ever was, actually."

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-resurfacing-lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool-blue/

---

Waste. Fraud. Abuse.

He is desecrating the entire city.

[mpcamb]

1. Somebody remind him he's a TENENT. He doesn't OWN it.

[Walleye]

3. Oh, but he believes he owns it, that makes it true

[PatSeg]

18. Oh, it seems everything belongs to him now

Whenever he talks of the U.S., he is talking about Donald Trump - I, me, mine, etc. He has an emperor's mindset where it all comes under his domain.

[Bristlecone]

47. Give him a break. He has a long history of leaving things better than he found them

He wants to ensure that the next President in 2028 has a great ballroom, arches, colored pools, etc. After all, when had he ever destroyed anything…..



(And yes, this is deep, deep sarcasm)

[Blues Heron]

2. This is the weirdest mass murdering interior decorating president in history

[evolves]

36. As Dubya said at the 2017 inauguration,

“That was some weird shit.”

[riversedge]

4. No doubt there will be a new sign with Trumps name on it.

[Irish_Dem]

20. It will be the Trump Memorial.

Pit his face on it!!

[twodogsbarking]

5. Will he part the water so we can walk through it without getting wet?

In two weeks.

[William Seger]

63. He got a promotion: He'll walk across it (nt)

[twodogsbarking]

64. When Biden walked on water the media said he can't swim and that was when he rescued the drowning Pope.

[twodogsbarking]

6. I am color blind. Another Trump failure.

[Volaris]

38. Ok, that was funny.

Very well done!

[Botany]

7. It is not his property and the way it looks now is the way it was designed to look like.

It is a reflecting structure not a swimming pool. The man has zero taste. He can have any cut of
meat, any piece of seafood, any baked good, any fruit or vegetable, or any drink but he likes well done
strip steaks (tough cut) with ketchup, KFC, McDonald’s, and Diet Coke. The man is devoid of taste.

And he thinks this looks “classy” too when it is a tacky eyesore. (Merde Logo gate).

[radical noodle]

26. I am shocked that the gate isn't gold!

He needs to work on that. Maybe it'll distract him. He wants to remake the US in his image by doing things not easily undone.

[Botany]

30. The man has zero taste.

He likes shit like this.

[Hope22]

8. WTF DUDE!!

99.9% of what you do is not your job! And 100% of what you do is poorly done!

[Ray Bruns]

17. How do you think he bankrupted his casinos?

Doing everything else but what he’s supposed to be doing.

[William Seger]

61. Same way he bankrupted #rump Shuttle

... by thinking that customers would pay extra for the #rump name.

[littlemissmartypants]

9. Make him paint it himself. Turn it into a photo op...

Then leave him alone with the paint and brushes and have a nice lunch.

[thesquanderer]

10. He has nothing better to do than renovate? It probably puts money in his pocket. (n/t)

Last edited Fri Apr 24, 2026, 04:53 PM - Edit history (1)

[thesquanderer]

34. It's also his comfort zone. Everything going to shit? Just ignore it and renovate something. (n/t)

[Ford_Prefect]

11. He's found another place to bury the Epstein evidence. Ivana's tomb was just a trial run.

[purr-rat beauty]

12. It's not a swimming pool!

But I can forsee jet skis in it soon if we keep this trajectory towards idiocy

[Javaman]

13. ah the Simpsons have a quote for everything...

?si=3YlOJUykRB7n-Rzq

[JohnnyRingo]

14. I can't say that's a bad idea in itself.

But I'm sure there's an angle. Perhaps one of his ballroom donors will get the heavily padded contract or maybe Jared will be appointed as Chief Project Officer.

At least he should go though Congress for approval and oversight.

[Irish_Dem]

15. Putin must be enjoying his puppet taking a wrecking ball to the US capital.

Putin is destroying the entire USA without firing a shot.

[Volaris]

40. That games about up come january.

[NNadir]

16. I'd prefer him lying on the bottom surface of the Lincoln pool...

...under water, Orrex style.

[efhmc]

19. Would someone somewhere give this idiot a job where he can actually redo places that need fixing?

Maybe starting with himself.

[Joinfortmill]

21. Jeezus. WTF? This pisses me off, very bigly.

[Orrex]

22. I hope he never resurfaces

Straight to the bottom and stay there, daughterfucker.

[twodogsbarking]

23. In Greek mythology, Narcissus is the figure who died while gazing at his own reflection in a pool of water.

Entranced by his own beauty, he was unable to leave the reflection and eventually pined away or drowned, with some versions saying he fell into the water trying to reach his own image.

[NNadir]

41. Well, if the orange pedophile is entranced by...

...his looks, we can add that to his well known lack of taste.

[SSJVegeta]

24. The Great Gatsby nt

[Historic NY]

25. The park service just finished its annual cleaning.

painting isn't going to help when ducks shit in it an algae grows. The water is cycled from the tidal basin which has its own pollutants. Trump thinks of new way to spend our money. Its a pond not a swimming pool

https://wtop.com/dc/2026/04/reflecting-pool-gets-a-deep-clean-in-preparation-for-america-250/]

[travelingthrulife]

29. He probably just wants to attract kids and teens in skimpy bathing suits

[JBTaurus83]

27. DC will look like one of his tacky casinos

By the time he is finished. I’m sure this project is top of every citizens mind as prices sky rocket. I’d hope Dems capitalize on all of his redecorating in an ad with a ticker of gas prices and the national debt in the corner.

[Clouds Passing]

28. Tidy Bowl Redecorating Inc.

[sop]

31. Will the Reflecting Pool's surface still reflect the surrounding monuments if the bottom is lightened?

The dark bottom absorbs light and creates a deeper, more dramatic, mirror-like effect, a blue bottom will likely change the visual characteristics of the pool's reflections.

[Mossfern]

35. Rec'd

This was my first question too!
Does he know the difference between 'renovation' and 'restoration?'

[LeftInTX]

62. The dark bottom probably hides and slows algae and dirt and pollutants

At least he's not gonna fill it with concrete like he originally planned.

[MIButterfly]

32. This is so tiresome

DJT focusing on everything he shouldn't and destroying everything he should be focusing on. How could one human being be so inept and just plain flat-out stupid?

A president serves the PEOPLE; DJT only serves himself. He obsesses over whatever cockamanie idea comes into his empty head at any given moment, all to our detriment.

Not to mention he treats our money like it's his own personal ATM while depriving people of health care, food assistance, etc.

People actually voted for this kind of bullshit. To my dying day, I will never get it.

[ColoringFool]

33. I'm Shocked He's Not Painting The Bottom GOLD.

[LeftInTX]

46. I'm surprised he's not filling it in with concrete and installing gold tile on top of that!

[ColoringFool]

66. Even better! 😄👍

[Wild blueberry]

37. Am I the only one who read this as "T says he'll resurface at the bottom of the reflecting pool" ?

As in, another of his close-to-death musings.

Get your tiny mitts OFF our White House, our capital, our country! They're not yours, nor is our taxpayer money, chump.

[samsingh]

39. he has a lot of time on his hands to do useless stuff - the other time is used to destroy Democracy

and cozy up to enemies while fighting allies

[Harker]

42. He wants the coins.

[Bengus81]

43. Let me guess,his puke kids just started a swimming pool business

[magicarpet]

44. Word around town is trDUMP wants to put an aircraft carrier in the reflective pool,...

.... and make KKKegsbreath the admiral in charge. He wants to be certain the whole world sees the USA as the warmonger state who will backdown to no one.

Then djt can launch Tomahawk missiles at the US Capitol if he does not like how they vote on his Heritage Foundation's - Fascist Program 2025 legislation.

[LeftInTX]

45. He's done worse things...And it's better than filling it with concrete...

It's probably a waste of money, but at least he isn't filling it with concrete like he originally planned.

[JoseBalow]

48. How much in kickbacks will he get?

drumpf doesn't do anything that doesn't personally benefit himself. Nothing.

[yellow dahlia]

52. I had the same thought.

[Kid Berwyn]

49. Trump is a moron fascinated by fabric swatches.

Trump, the billion-dollar loser — I was his ghostwriter and saw it happen

Charles Leerhson
Yahoo.com, May 9, 2019

EXCERPT...

I tend to see my time with him — the first part of it, anyway, before things started going bad in a hurry — as his “King Midas” period. I never said this to him; if I had, he probably would have thought I was suggesting he enter the muffler business. But there was a stretch of months when everything he touched turned into a deal. The banks seemed to accept the version of him depicted in his first book, “The Art of the Deal,” which we now know from his previous ghostwriter, Tony Schwartz, was entirely invented. They believed it over what they saw on his balance sheets or heard coming out of his mouth, and they never said no to his requests for more money. Often they came up with things he could say yes to before he could think of them himself. As a result, a failing real estate developer who had little idea of what he was doing and less interest in doing it once he’d held the all-important press conference wound up owning three New Jersey hotel-casinos, the Plaza Hotel, the Eastern Airlines Shuttle and a 281-foot yacht.

A real go-getter, right? But Trump’s portfolio did not jibe with what I saw each day — which to a surprisingly large extent was him looking at fabric swatches. Indeed, flipping through fabric swatches seemed at times to be his main occupation. Some days he would do it for hours, then take me in what he always called his “French military helicopter” to Atlantic City — where he looked at more fabric swatches or sometimes small samples of wood paneling. It was true that the carpets and drapes at his properties needed to be refreshed frequently, and the seats on the renamed Trump Shuttle required occasional reupholstering. But the main thing about fabric swatches was that they were within his comfort zone — whereas, for example, the management of hotels and airlines clearly wasn’t. One of his aides once told me that every room at the Plaza could be filled at the “rack rate” (list price) every night, and the revenue still wouldn’t cover the monthly payment of the loan he’d taken out to buy the place. In other words, he’d made a ridiculous deal. Neither he nor the banks had done the math beforehand. Or perhaps Trump knew it because someone had told him, but didn’t want to think about it. The one thing he is above-average at is compartmentalization.

Source:

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-the-billiondollar-loser-his-ghostwriter-recalls-the-king-midas-years-090000640.html

[tavernier]

50. I'm glad!

Dems should put up a sign next to it once it’s done reminding people to vote blue!

[Ocelot II]

51. It's not supposed to be blue; it's a reflecting pool, not a swimming pool.

[Bayard]

53. I bet he's never been within spitting distance of the pool

He has no idea what's in it, but he just has to mess with everything.

[greatauntoftriplets]

54. The duck poop will contrast so nicely with the blue.

[LeftInTX]

60. Yellow and blue equals green. Nitrates equal green

If the pool is currently painted black, it probably helps with algae control. It probably helps hide the algae

[-misanthroptimist]

55. I'm actually in favor...

...of resurfacing the bottom of any pool with Trump.

[bucolic_frolic]

56. This is not a renovation kick

It is an obsession with being right about everything and being able to dictate what happens, what style, design, architecture is, and everyone else can go shove it.

[ColoringFool]

67. He so cavalierly destroyed the West Wing, there's nothing to stop wholesale.....

destruction in the name of "much-needed renovation, Barack Hussein Obama let everything go to pot. The furniture is so uncomfortable, I guess it's so visitors don't stay long. Soon the White House will be bigger and more beautiful than any other building in America, probably the world. I'd like to have gold columns, like a Greek temple but better. My friend President Putin might disagree, but we'll see. I think I'll win this one.

What's that? When will we end the war with Iran? Who sent you here---Fake News CNN? You are nasty."

[Lulu KC]

57. The guy needs a hobby

Retirement beckons, big guy.

[gordianot]

58. At the least he did not tear it down.

Replace it with an orange creep sitting on a golden throne.

[Bengus81]

59. And tomorrow's distraction from the EPSTEIN FILES will be what from that POS?

[Grins]

65. "... Trump said he is disturbed by the "terrible" condition of the pool,

Show me one photo of him at the pool. He has never seen it up close.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

68. MaddowBlog-Trump, still mired in distractions, turns his attention to the reflecting pool in D.C.

Two-thirds of Americans believe the president has the wrong priorities. As he focuses on another renovation project, he keeps proving them right.

...contracting procedures had been followed or whether any element of the endeavor has been or will be subject to any kind of oversight."

"Trump, still mired in distractions, turns his attention to the reflecting pool in D.C." share.google/HERD8kOwVboh...

— DrDinD.bsky.social (@drdind.bsky.social) 2026-04-25T15:44:07.247Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-still-mired-in-distractions-turns-his-attention-to-the-reflecting-pool-in-d-c

On the contrary, the Republican appears far more interested in assorted renovation projects than his actual governing responsibilities. The New York Times reported:

Next up on President Trump’s renovation tour of Washington, D.C.: the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, which he called ‘filthy’ and ‘dirty’ and in need of a major upgrade.

Mr. Trump said on Thursday that the project was already underway to renovate the reflecting pool, which is more than 2,000 feet long and has been the site of many historic events, including Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.

At a White House event ostensibly about health care, Trump strayed from the topic to talk about the reflecting pool between the Washington and Lincoln memorials, taking time to argue that he “actually had more people” when he spoke at a July 4 event at the reflecting pool than MLK did when he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. (“I have pictures of Martin Luther King’s crowd and my crowd,” the president said.).....

An Associated Press report added, “Trump brought up the project unprompted and spoke about it for several minutes.”

This latest renovation project is not to be confused with the president’s preoccupation with his ballroom vanity project, his crusade to build a “Triumphal Arch,” his apparent excitement about the construction of a temporary White House arena for an upcoming UFC fight, his desire to turn the White House Executive Office Building into a giant white blob, his stated interest in renovating the White House Treaty Room, his specific marble and paint preferences for the Kennedy Center or the dozen or so other renovation projects Trump has prioritized in and around the White House complex.

Two-thirds of Americans believe their unpopular president simply has the wrong priorities. He keeps proving them right.

[sakabatou]

69. Everything Dump touches turns to shit