President Donald Trump inspected the progress on the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Thursday evening. In doing so, the presidential motorcade drove across the drained pool’s surface to inspect the new “American flag blue” protective coating being installed.
Afterward, the president exited his vehicle and answered questions from the media. He was joined by multiple Cabinet members, including Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Border Czar Tom Homan, and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Trump touted the success of the renovations and the aesthetics of the new coating at the base of the pool, calling it a “great color.”
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“It never had the color people wanted, but now it’s going to have a great color,” Trump said regarding the renovations.
Trump also explained the motive for the change and new construction in the area, claiming the pool and its surroundings were unsightly and dirty.
“I want to keep our country beautiful and safe,” Trump said when asked by a reporter about the changes. “The place was a disgusting place.”
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“It was [the] Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial … And you walk down this pond, if you were to walk down, they’ll tell you better than anybody, they had to take 11 or 12 truckloads of garbage out of that lake, out of that water,” Trump added, pointing to a group of contractors working on the project. “And it sat there for years like that, and that’s not what our country’s about. Our country’s about beauty, cleanliness, safety, great people, not a filthy capital.”
The last renovation of the Reflecting Pool took place between 2010 and 2012 at a cost of $34 million, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The original reflecting pool was completed in 1923 and has undergone renovations since, in the 1980s to address foundation problems and leaks, and the aforementioned change between 2010 and 2012.
