WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday went on an unannounced trip to the Lincoln Memorial to see the Reflecting Pool after he had it coated in a color he calls “American flag blue.”
He did more than just see it — the Republican president was driven across the new coating before he got out of his SUV to make a statement and answer questions from reporters who had been taken there to await his arrival before the sun set.
The new blue coating will hide the pool’s gray stone, a color Trump said was “never good.” The project cost nearly $2 million, he said.
“It never had the color people wanted, but now it’s going to have the great color,” he said, standing in the pool surrounded by some of his Cabinet secretaries, including Doug Burgum of Interior and Markwayne Mullin of Homeland Security.
Trump had similar feelings about the gray granite exterior of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House, describing it as a “really bad color” last year. The president wants to cover the building in white paint and two federal agencies are reviewing his proposal.
Trump said he is also working on the memorial to President Abraham Lincoln itself, but he offered no specifics, saying only that “we have a beautiful plan” in mind.
Work has been underway at the memorial for the past few years on an underground visitors’ center scheduled to open in June.
Trump last month announced the reflecting pool renovation during an unrelated Oval Office appearance. He said he was inspired by the complaints of a friend visiting from Germany, who he said told him the water in the pool was dark, filthy, and looked disgusting.
The project is another way for Trump to leave his mark on the city, following his demolition of the White House East Wing to build a large ballroom there.
Critics have said Trump is spending too much time and attention on his pet projects and not enough on issues that voters care about, like the cost of living, in the run-up to the November elections. Others have said he wants the reflecting pool to look more like an actual swimming pool.
Trump lashed out when a reporter asked why he was focused on the Reflecting Pool, given U.S. military action in Iran. He said several truckloads of garbage had been hauled away after it was removed from the pool and said, “Our country is about beauty, cleanliness, safety, great people. Not a filthy capital.”
“We’re fixing up the reflecting pond to the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and you say, ‘Why are you fixing it up?’” Trump continued. “Because you can understand dirt maybe better than I can, but I don’t allow it.”
