Crews began draining the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool again on Sunday, the second time in three months that the century-old National Mall landmark has been emptied in the Trump administration’s increasingly troubled effort to restore it, as officials continued to blame vandalism rather than the quality of the repair work itself for the waterway’s recurring problems.
US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum confirmed the draining in an interview with conservative podcaster Katie Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, saying the timing had been planned to follow the administration’s Fourth of July fireworks display over the National Mall.
“Drain the water, clean up the fireworks stuff. Repair the vandalism that was done. Fill it back up again,” Burgum said, describing a straightforward sequence for a project that has proven anything but.
As of Tuesday evening, water remained in the pool, and it was unclear whether crews would drain it fully or only partially, a decision Burgum suggested over the weekend had not yet been finalised.
A Renovation That Keeps Unravelling
Trump first announced plans to beautify the Reflecting Pool this spring, saying he wanted the century-old landmark restored before the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations on July 4. Water was drained, and Trump directed that the pool’s floor be repainted a colour he described as “American flag blue,” so that it would better reflect the Washington Monument rising above it.
In May, Trump posted on Truth Social that the project was “ahead of schedule,” predicting the restoration would last “at this higher level” for a century to come.
Instead, within weeks of the project’s original completion, the water was overtaken by a stubborn algae bloom, and sections of the newly applied blue coating began peeling away from the pool’s floor. The pool was ultimately closed for the Independence Day celebration itself, though Burgum attributed that closure to a fireworks-related safety concern rather than the ongoing repair problems.
Vandals or Shoddy Workmanship? A Dispute Over Blame
Trump has repeatedly insisted that the pool’s failures stem from deliberate sabotage rather than defective construction, alleging in Truth Social posts that vandals used a knife or box-cutter to slice roughly 350 feet of gashes into the pool’s protective liner and poured “corrosive and destructive chemicals” into the water to cause the coating to peel.
Burgum has echoed that account publicly, telling CNN’s “State of the Union” that he was certain vandalism, not the contractor’s craftsmanship, was responsible, while offering a slightly different tally of the damage. “Multiple gashes… add up to 350 feet,” Burgum said on ABC’s “This Week,” characterising the affected area as a tiny fraction of the massive project.
Critics, however, have pointed to the recurring algae blooms, the peeling coating and the project’s ballooning price tag, now exceeding $16 million, roughly $4 million above initial estimates, as evidence that the underlying workmanship, not sabotage, is the more likely culprit.
Authorities have arrested more than half a dozen people in connection with alleged vandalism at the site, including former Olympian David Hearn, who was indicted on a felony property-destruction charge after he said he merely touched a loose piece of the pool’s coating. Hearn has denied damaging the pool. “I did not remove, I did not damage, I did not rip, tear, break, destroy or harm any part of the Reflecting Pool,” he told ABC News.
Same Contractor, No New Bids
Despite the mounting complications, Burgum confirmed the administration would not open the repair work to competing bids, instead retaining the same firm responsible for the original renovation.
“We’ll use the same company, because they did a fantastic job,” Burgum said, adding that the vandalism, in his assessment, had been comparatively minor even as the underlying repair itself was executed well.
That contractor, Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings, was previously awarded a no-bid contract worth roughly $14.7 million to reseal and repaint the pool’s concrete basin. The firm has said in a statement that it identified certain areas requiring additional repairs and would return once the pool is drained to complete that work under the project’s warranty, characterising the affected sections as “a very small part of the massive 7-acre project” that does not reflect a broader liner failure.
Eddie Gross, the company’s owner, told CNN that no firm timeline had yet been set for the new round of work and declined to discuss the contract’s costs. A separate Ohio-based firm, Green Water Solutions, was awarded a $1.7 million contract to install a water-purification system for the pool.
Dead Ducks and Doubts Over Water Safety
The renovation’s troubles have extended beyond cosmetic failures. Three duck carcasses were discovered in or near the Reflecting Pool during last month’s repair work, raising concerns among wildlife advocates about whether the algae or chemicals used in the cleanup process may have harmed local animal populations.
City Wildlife, a Washington-area animal rescue and rehabilitation organisation, recovered two of the duck bodies from a nearby pond and began conducting necropsies to determine the cause of death. April Linton, the group’s president, said the ducks’ exposure to the pool itself could not be ruled out as a factor.
Burgum has separately sought to downplay the algae issue as a temporary byproduct of the refilling process rather than a sign of deeper contamination, telling CNN that the algae had entered the pool through supply pipes as the water was being reintroduced and had since fully cleared.
Part of a Broader, Costly Beautification Push
The Reflecting Pool project is one of several ambitious and expensive undertakings Trump has pursued across the nation’s capital since returning to office. The US president has also overseen the demolition of the White House’s East Wing to make way for a $400 million ballroom and has proposed constructing a large ceremonial arch between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.
Trump has said his interest in refurbishing the Reflecting Pool, built in the early 1920s and stretching more than 2,000 feet between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, was sparked by a foreign visitor who described the historic landmark as “filthy” and “disgusting.”
As crews resume draining the pool for the second time this year, the project’s mounting costs, disputed cause of damage and unresolved timeline underscore the broader friction surrounding Trump’s aggressive effort to remake some of Washington’s most storied public spaces, a fight that, for now, shows no sign of concluding.
