Trump Has the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool Drained and Painted 'American Flag Blue' for About $2 Million

Beginning the weekend of April 25, 2026, crews drained the 2,030-foot Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and applied a light-blue base coat as part of a resurfacing project President Trump announced on Truth Social and discussed in the Oval Office. Trump said the pool's joints would be repaired and its bottom resurfaced with industrial-grade material in "American flag blue," and said the work would take about a week. The Interior Department, which oversees the National Park Service, said the blue coat was a standard step in a multi-layer process and that completion was expected by the end of May. Reporting put the estimated cost at about $2 million.

The Reflecting Pool is a contributing feature of a national memorial on the National Mall, and changes to its appearance ordinarily run through historic-preservation review. The episode drew objections from preservationists over both the aesthetic change and the process by which it was directed, and it came alongside other White House-directed alterations to federal properties in Washington.

Work began in late April 2026 and was still under way at the end of the month, with Interior projecting completion by the end of May.