Late last week, President Donald Trump announced his plans for the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool: painting the entire surface “American Flag Blue.”
Built in 1922, the Reflecting Pool is one of the nation’s most recognizable landmarks—perhaps most famously the site of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. It’s also long been a logistical headache, plagued by leaks and repeated cleanings, including a $34 million reconstruction between 2010 and 2012 during the Obama administration.
The idea, Trump said in an Instagram Reel posted by the White House, came from a friend in Germany who told him the pool’s water looked “filthy, dirty…disgusting looking” and “not representative of the country.” After touring the site with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Trump scrapped a full $301 million overhaul to replace the basin’s stone. Instead, he opted for a quicker fix: scrub the surface, re-grout the granite, and paint over it.
To pull it off, Trump said he turned to personal contractors, telling reporters, “I said, ‘You know, Doug, I have a guy who’s unbelievable at doing swimming pools. Up the road, we have a club. We have an Olympic-size swimming pool.’ ” Trump has said the project would wrap within two weeks—and cost $1 to $2 million—ahead of the administration’s July 4 plans for the nation’s 250th anniversary.
Yet when I visited the site of the makeover yesterday, I couldn’t help but question whether the timeline was even possible. A group of contractors stood in a circle, watching as one worker hand-painted the surface before taking a break and swapping places with another worker. When I asked nearby park rangers when they expected the project to be completed, they told me, “It’s planned for July 4,” before glancing at one another and laughing.
A social media post raised questions about what appeared to be a shift in color—from a brighter blue that was first painted to what now is apparently “American Flag Blue.” According to a spokesperson for the US Department of the Interior, “The light-blue base coat visible over the weekend is a standard step in the multi-layer process and serves as the foundation for the final finish. As President Trump announced, the final coating will be ‘American Flag Blue,’ reflecting the patriotic character of one of the nation’s most recognizable memorials.” The spokesperson also said “Work remains on track for completion by the end of May.”
Congressman Gabe Amo of Rhode Island told The Washington Post that, “As Trump gets ready to play host to King Charles III this week, his emphasis on pageantry and decorations instead of our nation’s economic pain is a reminder that he wants to be a king—and why 250 years ago, America decided that we didn’t want one.”
What was also striking were the tourists and locals who, while taking photos in front of the Lincoln and the Reflecting Pool—now surrounded by black fencing and tarp—had little to say. One woman, who told me she runs around the pool every week from Capitol Hill, called the change “just one other example of him doing something that’s impetuous for himself and not taking into account anybody else’s thoughts.” She added that the recent changes around DC—the now Trump-Kennedy Center, the proposed Triumphal Arch, even the banners hanging on government buildings—are “exhausting.”
By 1 PM, a local news reporter joked they couldn’t get any more footage; the crew on-site had, by the looks of it, stopped painting for the day.
This article was updated since its original posting, after a spokesperson for the US Department of the Interior got back to us with a comment.
Tristan Espinoza joined Washingtonian as an Editorial Fellow in 2026. A proud Osage Native from Dallas, Texas, he is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (Nonfiction) at American University. He is a graduate of Columbia University and the London School of Economics. He lives in Mount Pleasant.
