President Donald Trump fired off an angry 400-word rant after it was revealed that his controversial renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool will cost a lot more than he said.
Trump decided to put his touch on the historic site, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963, late last month, as part of a broader “beautification” of Washington, D.C. He said the job, to fix the leaky joints and paint the base “American flag blue,” would cost $1.8 million. However, the New York Times has now revealed that the Interior Department plans to pay $13.1 million to the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings.
In his post at 1:12 a.m., Trump, 79, all but confirmed the Times’ reporting, which was based on federal records. He deleted the original post and re-uploaded it at 6:46 a.m., removing a typo (the original called the pool “and embarrassment to Washington”) and adding a few grammatical fixes.
By scrutinizing the inflated cost, Trump claimed the paper was “trying to justify Obama and Biden’s expensively botched attempt at fixing” the pool. “They squandered at least 55 Million Dollars haplessly trying, with no chance of success, to get the Reflecting Pool to work,” he said.
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool underwent a major renovation under the Obama administration, when Joe Biden was vice president, between 2010 and 2012. The project cost roughly $30–38 million, not $55 million.
Trump cast himself as a heroic figure who was saving the day. “Now, along comes ‘TRUMP,’ who is asked by many patriots if I can fix it. The answer is a resounding, YES, and for a ‘tiny’ fraction of the cost!” he said,
He continued: “Instead of taking 4 years to build, at a cost, granite pavers and all, of 400 Million Dollars, we could construct a far superior Reflecting Pool for 5 or 6 Million Dollars, and could complete the project in 2 weeks rather than 4 years. What a difference in time and money, and for a far superior end result!” he said.
Again, his numbers are off. The Interior Department added $6.2 million to the contract’s previous cost of $1.8 million, totaling $8 million, not “5 or 6,” as Trump wrote on his Truth Social post.
Trump then attacked the reporter who wrote the critical piece, and said he had actually saved hundreds of millions of dollars for taxpayers.
“This is not just a paint job, like lowlife ‘reporter,’ David Fahrenthold, of the NYT so inaccurately and maliciously stated, it is a deeply complicated work of smart and beautiful construction. It won’t leak, it will shine, and be the pride of Washington D.C. for decades to come. I saved more than 390 Million Dollars, and 4 years of no ‘mess,’ and was, of course, given no credit by the biased New York Times,” he said.
Trump’s attack on what he called the “Failing New York Times” comes as the newspaper gained 1.4 million digital subscribers in 2025 and continues to lead U.S. news sites in terms of web traffic.
Although Trump seemed annoyed that the job was being reduced to a “paint job,” the Department of the Interior didn’t make it sound much more sophisticated in its statement. The department called it “the leak prevention coating project.”
Trump signed off his rant with a confusing statement. “Also, I didn’t give out the contract, ‘Interior’ did, to a contractor I did not know, and have never used before,” he said.
However, his administration sidestepped requirements to consider competing offers and awarded the lucrative no-bid contract to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which has renovated pools at Trump’s club in Sterling, Virginia.
“I have a guy who’s unbelievable at doing swimming pools,” the president told reporters in late April.
During a speech in the White House Rose Garden on Monday, he also referenced the Times piece. “I read in The New York Times we just gave it a little paint job. This is not paint. This is highly sophisticated stuff,” he said.
The president is clearly rankled by criticism of his project. Last week, ABC News senior political correspondent Rachel Scott bore the brunt of his wrath for daring to question his magnanimous beautification.
“Mr. President, you are here against the backdrop of the war in Iran. Why focus on all these projects right now? We’re still seeing gas prices soaring,” she said, reflecting voters’ concern.
Trump lambasted Scott, calling her a “horror show” and a “disgrace” who had asked a “stupid question.”
