Renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is complete, but Donald Trump oversold the idea that it would look better than ever.
The pool, originally built in 1922, reopened to the public on June 9.
The undertaking reportedly cost $14.2 million, although Trump, 79, announced in April that the renovation would cost $1.8 million — the first promise to crumble.
He controversially used a portion of the $90 million stripped from the National Park Service budget for the project. An outraged X user tweeted the allocation of federal money was “theft and illegal misappropriation of funds.”
A lawsuit filed by The Cultural Landscape Foundation was unsuccessful in halting the project. The May filing claimed the administration did not comply with the National Historic Preservation Act and sidestepped congressional review.
Trump’s second unfulfilled promise was that crews would resurface and refill the pool in just two weeks. Challenges with painting the basin “American Flag Blue” and repairs to surrounding stone took two months to finish.
The president ultimately amended the timeline and guaranteed the memorial would be ready before Independence Day. During a June 10 Oval Office meeting, he boasted that the pool is “almost 2,500 foot long, that’s taller than any building in the world, actually.”
Adding, “There’s no building that’s 2,500 feet tall, I don’t think, but it’s like twice the height of the Empire State Building, as an example, much wider. So we just got that open last night. We wanted to do it before July 4, and it is incredible.”
Trump on the Reflecting Pool:
— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) June 10, 2026
It's taller than any building in the world. There's no building that's 2,500 ft tall, I don't think, but it's like twice the height of the Empire State Building and much wider. It was called the Reflecting Lake, but it was supposed to be a… pic.twitter.com/e6bXN9cCx6
The world’s tallest building is the 2,717-foot Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Trump also reverted to calling it a “reflecting lake” and “pond” during the brag session.
Supporters tweeted reactions such as, “It’s so nice to see the beauty being brought back to D.C. I never thought I would see it!!” and “Thank Heavens, the water is reflecting properly. Bless President Trump.” But the reservoir only appeared mess-free for a short time.
The blue reflection appeared dark and murky because of something lying beneath the water’s surface.
An X user wrote, “I’ve been saying this from jump. The Reflecting Pool was going to end up looking like a green swamp, not blue. I just didn’t expect it to happen this fast. One day after it was filled, there’s already a ton of algae. And let’s be clear: this dude vacuuming the bottom is only part of the process. Without filtration and chemical treatment, the algae is here to stay.”
“Ohhh wait a minute… now they are going to pay some fool millions to dump bleach into the pool because that’s what every red blooded hillbilly does when their’s turns green,” another user shared.
A CNN video attached to the post showed a worker vacuuming the buildup. Weeks earlier, Trump criticized Barack Obama’s $35 million attempt to repair the pool.
However, the sitting president was informed that joints between the basin’s slabs would be replaced to prevent leaks but did not address filtration issues that would prevent the overgrowth of algae.
His critics suspect the murky matter will only worsen. An IG Threads user commented, “Increased algae growth and water evaporation will result from a dark blue painted pool. The water is going to heat up faster. It’s gonna be pretty ‘swampy’ this summer.”
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Another person dubbed the monument “the deflecting pool.”
Interior Department spokesperson communications director Kate Martin told CNN, “What you are seeing is residual algae from the supply lines, which have been sitting dormant for eight weeks while construction has been taking place. It’s part of the normal startup process.”
She continued, “We are removing the algae, and the nanobubblers will maintain the pool and keep it algae free. President Donald J. Trump is an expert builder who has fixed the Reflecting Pool for good unlike the failed and extremely costly attempt by Obama and Biden.”
A detractor hit back at the claim, stating, “It is not ‘residual’ it is all new algae, because, you know, algae is a living thing that grows!”
