Donald Trump claimed on Sunday that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was back “in full use” as he spent the day on a rainy tour of his D.C. beautification efforts around the nation’s capital.
Despite fencing around the structure and plans to drain and resurface it around the July 4 holiday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the pool was working well, adding that the “criminally made algae is gone.”
“It never worked properly until last week and, right after July 4th, when we will drain the water to treat the damage caused by these ’animals,’ it will again be in perfect shape,” added the president.
His bizarre claim that the algae bloom, which has overtaken the pool after its high-profile renovation, was the result of criminal mischief comes as the Parks Service has asserted that the president was right about vandals cutting the liner coating the bottom of the pool with a knife or razor of some kind after its installation.
Plans to re-drain the Reflecting Pool and reinstall the blue coating on the bottom are just part of the reason why the project has surged past Trump’s initial cost estimates of $2 million.
The administration is now estimating that it will cost $16 million to renovate the pool to stop leaks and achieve the new darker-blue look the president was hoping to see. The project has gone on for weeks as workers have dumped chemicals and worked daily to treat algae. At times, the pool has appeared lime green due to the algae, with chunks of separated blue coating and even dead ducklings visible in the water.
