President Donald Trump turned Thursday’s Reflecting Pool renovation reveal into a full spectacle with an extended, unscripted back-and-forth with reporters. The moment felt like any other presser, until one question about his string of vanity projects hit a nerve and the afternoon took a sharp turn.
Now, Trump is being called out for insulting another Black female reporter after she asked him to justify all the vanity projects amid rising gas prices.
“Mr. President, we are here against the backdrop of a war in Iran,” ABC News senior correspondent Rachel Scott asked. “Why focus on all these projects as gas prices soar?”
“You know why? Because I want to keep our country beautiful and safe. Beautiful also,” Trump replied. “This place was disgusting place. It was the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and we had a terrible, disgusting, I don’t know, you probably don’t see dirt.”
Trump boasted that crews took “11 or 12 truckloads” of garbage out of the Reflecting Pool.
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was built around 1922, according to Trump.
USA TODAY reports one contractor said the pool was decaying and could be cleaned up in about two weeks. The pair decided on the color “American Flag Blue” for the pool redo.
“Such a stupid question,” the president continued. “We’re fixing up the reflecting pond to the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and you say, ‘Why are you fixing it up?’ Because you can understand dirt, maybe, better than I can, but I don’t allow it.”
The president announced the renovations last month. USA Today reports he made the decision after one of his German friends visited the United States and called it “disgusting” and “not representative of the country.”
“This is one of the worst reporters, she’s with ABC Fake News, and she’s a horror show,” Trump said.
The president also called Scott’s question “a disgrace to our country” before whispering something to one of the Secret Service members around him.
Moments later, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin was seen steering the still-fuming president away from the cameras, whispering in his ear with a hand on his shoulder.
This is not the first time Trump has criticized Scott.
In 2024, at the National Association of Black Journalists conference, he called out Scott for not greeting him before launching into the discussion.
“Well, first of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner, a first question,” he said. “You don’t even say, ‘Hello, how are you?’ Are you with ABC? Because I think they’re a fake news network, a terrible network.”
View on Threads
The following year, while being asked by Scott about an unreleased video of the U.S. military’s second strike on a capsized boat, the president left the room.
Many people online condemned Trump’s comment.
“This from the guy who just dumped toxic waste all over the East Potomac Golf Course. Washington, D.C. was beautiful before he came, and now the Kennedy Center lies follow, the reflecting pool is blue, the East Wing is in shambles, and the White House is littered with cement patios and statues,” @lwsvienna posted on Threads.
“It’s the fact that he is always disrespectful to women, and not one man ever says anything about it,” @ally_said_it added.
“Thank you, Rachel Scott, for asking the questions we want answers to. Wish your colleagues were as relentless as you in seeking the truth,” @zanmatthews said.
“I absolutely hate that you couldn’t say anything back because of the possibility of losing your job. I hate that we are supposed to have freedom of speech, and he uses it, but you couldn’t,” @queenyonsada wrote.
However, Scott may have gotten the last laugh. ABC News filed a lawsuit against the president on Friday. The network claims Trump violated its First Amendment rights by conducting an investigation into whether “The View” broke a requirement that broadcast stations give equal time to political candidates for the same office.
